The ability to implement linked lists != pointers and references
Behind the scene, yes, every Python variable is a reference to an object. It's not addressable, however, and in the case of immutable objects (like strings), you can't modify the underlying object and keep all references pointed at that updated object.
If have references you can pretty much always implement lists. First all you do not need mutability, you can implement linked lists form immutable cons cells, second python has mutable references so implementing linked lists is trivial (the fact that some objects are in fact immutable is immaterial).
They all use them internally, but don't tend to make them available to the programmer (usually because they aren't needed).