Set active trail in hook_preprocess_node
The menu active trail is defined by the menu.active_trail service. Unfortunately it doesn't use a tag based extension like breadcrumbs.

You can replace that service and in case you detect that you're on a patch displaying a certain content type, return your desired structure.

You could also try out the https://www.drupal.org/project/menu_trail_by_path module, which defines the active trail based on the aliased path, like breadcrumbs do by default.