The resistor is used on cars without points as well. They serve the same purpose: To cut voltage to the coil to around 9v since that is all that is needed to keep the engine running.

By the way.... You can drop to 7.2 volts and still run. Your engine will run poorly and at 7.1 it will quit. This will take place when one of these resistors starts to break down and choke off the volts to your coil. If the resistor gets too hot it will break down and 'melt' like a fuse, but unlike a fuse it will fail not because of too much current draw from a short in a component but from just being old and having too much current passed through it for too many years.

Also unlike a fuse you can see if a fuse is burned through. You just have to check a resistor with a volt meter to see if current is flowing through it since they are normally sealed in a ceramic housing.

On cars with Hall Effect or optical devices in place of ignition points nothing will burn out but the resistor will still get hot when the engine is in the run position if there is no draw on the current being presented to it.