Though careen once meant to tip or tilt (specifically ships for cleaning or caulking) and career to move swiftly in an uncontrolled way, throughout the 1900s, careen steadily adopted the definition of career. While some purists may still fight for the words’ distinct meanings, consider careen’s adopted definition as acceptable in modern writing.
The word’s linguistic shift may have come from career’s more popular noun form confusing writers and readers or carom influencing careen’s evolution. But the reason behind this shift matters little: phrases such as the car careened have long been more common than the car careered.