Does playing games that cause heat in a Mac cause damage?

I keep hearing that playing a game that will cause the Macbook to get really hot will cause overheating, but doesn't thermal throttling and good ventilation exist?

Or will it only overheat if the game is beyond what the Macbook can handle, which makes it get too hot to the point thermal throttling cant handle, and overheat?

(Macbook Air 2017)