Tootsie Toy, which, originally, were either rough die cast or stamped metal. They were literally just hollow shells of cars with axles, in solid color. They were sold loose in a box next to the penny candy. These cars were small, 1" to 1.5" long. Tootsie Toy, later, really up'd their game. The cars were about twice as big as Matchbox/Hot Wheel.
Next were Matchbox, these were the "replicas". They had the normal sized cars, but they also had some King Sized, I was particularly fascinated by this truck and trailer pipe truck they had.
Then, there were Hot Wheels, which were mostly fantasy cars. Splittin' Image, Red Baron, the surf board truck, Jack Rabbit Special. I swear we had hundreds of feet of Hot Wheels track as a kid. And then they brought out the Sizzlers, electric, rechargeable cars. Those were a lot of fun. Also there were the Hot Wheels Heavyweight and the Chopcycles.
Oh, and I should also mention the Hot Wheel Factory. This was back when the toy companies had no compunction selling toys with open heating elements to children. Here you melted rubber-ish compound into an injection mold system where you'd place bases and wheels into the mold and squeeze molten rubbery plastic to make your own cars.
At the high end were Corgi, those were really nice. I had a very nice ambulance. The cars were hefty. But they were rare, not like Matchbox or Hot Wheels.
Trying to compete with Hot Wheels was Johnny Lightning. Known mostly for their elaborate race sets. Where Hot Wheels had things like the Super Charger (which had a pair of spinning wheels used to shoot cars out one end, very useful for loops), Johnny Lightning had a conveyor system. Kind of like a marble track, with cars.
Dinky had some really nice stuff, but they were very exotic. There was a small toy store near where I lived that had not just those, but another line that was very detailed construction equipment. It was all out of my price range as a kid, though. I was definitely wanting Dinky's Thunderbirds models.