Unable to use bootable USB flash drive as startup disk
I have a MacBook Air (early 2020) with macOS Catalina (10.15.7) installed. I am trying to install High Sierra to a volume on my Mac so that I can run some 32-bit Mac games. And no, running High Sierra as a VM will not allow me to run the games in question. I set up a SanDisk USB flash drive as a bootable drive. My USB drive shows up as a bootable drive in Startup Disk in System Preferences. However, when I try to restart using the USB drive, or when I try rebooting my Mac while holding the option key and selecting my USB drive, I get the following message: You can't change the startup disk to the selected disk. The startup disk could not be verified. Select another startup disk.
I have tried several times with one USB drive, and then tried with another. I get the same result every time.
Can I do this? If so, what am I missing?
Thanks for your help.
MacBook Air