Car insurance claim?

You can keep the money.  

If there's no lien on the car, you can do whatever you want with the check.  (But why you would file a claim that will make your rates go up doesn't make any sense to me). 

If it is for damage repair and if the check is from the other guys insurance, you don't have to have the car fixed and can use the money for anything.  If, by chance it is from your OWN insurance company,  they will make the check out to you and the body shop.  It would be rare to have your own insurance company make out the check to only you. They will almost certainly require you to have the car fixed.  If you don't, they will either cancel your coverage or won't cover the same damage again.

You can use the money for anything you want.

If you have financed the car and haven't paid off the car, then you have to get it repaired.

If you paid off the car or you didn't finance it, you can keep the money.

You can do whatever you want with it.  But if you don't get the repair, you have to drive around with a big dent in your car, and when you sell it the car might be worth less.

Yes.  Most of the time now, you do not get any.  They tell you to go to a repair shop and the shop will fix the car.  The insurance pays the shop and you get the car when it is fixed.  For minor repairs, you wait at the shop.

You can keep the money, HOWEVER, if you have another accident the damages from the previous accident that you cashed out, will NOT be covered.