Do carrots grow on top of the ground?

Yes it can be used.

In fact, carrot roots are used in carrot seed production. The farmer cuts the bottom one-third off, plants the rest in the soil (with the crown up), and the root produces a whole plant with the seed heads (umbels) at the top, about four to five feet off the ground.

Carrot root cells are so totepotent that the entire plant of carrot may be raised from a single cell taken out from its meristem by tissue culture technique. The first cloning in plants was done in carrot plant in the early seventies.