There is no real need to tie interactions/animations to the game clock - it can be tied to a timer, but not necessarily the one on our screens.
What if there was another clock and that clock was the one we see on our screens? So, our notion of the passage of Sim time is linked to this new clock on the screen.
WHAT HAPPENS IF WE PAUSE THE NEW CLOCK - STOP THAT SUCKER DEAD IN ITS TRACKS?
Nothing! The game would happily chug along as normal.
Can this new clock trigger a Sim to go to work? Yep. Can it dictated other triggers? Yep. Does it affect animations speeds, etc? Nope.
I once wrote a very long, detailed, explanation of this; HOWEVER, Maxis/forum moderation deleted the post - they nuked it from orbit - as if to hide evidence.
It was actually deleted - nuked.
