Essentially it is a VM environment.

https://www.cio.com/article/3193926/why-and-how-to-run-linux-in-macos-for-free.html
Parallels Desktop Lite is a free of cost app that allows you to run Linux distributions inside of macOS.

"Now there is a ‘free-as-in-beer’ solution available in the App Store called Parallels Desktop Lite that you can run any Linux distribution on (though if you want to use Windows on it, you have to pay $60)."

"Parallels Desktop Lite offers five Linux distributions from the app itself. You can download Chrome OS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian and CentOS from within the app and install it. The only major distro missing from the list is openSUSE."

Although it doesn't have Mint you can install it. However I tried mint on a Windiws laptop and ended up going with Fedora instead.

I did not use this tool and don't dual boot on the windows laptop. I installed Fedora on the laptop and use VM' for other OS's.

for the app in 2019. So it is no longer free.

As an alternative you could intall virtualbox and run whatever linux distro you want in a VM.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

http://osxdaily.com/2018/12/31/install-run-virtualbox-macos-install-kernel-fails/