I’ve seen Nascar crashes where a car going 180 goes sideways into a wall, and then gets t-boned by other cars that were also going 180 mph and yet no rollover and the cars barely look damaged and everyone walks away unscathed. Meanwhile normal passenger cars go sideways doing 50mph and they roll over 6 times, gets demolished, and kills the driver. What is it about Nascar cars that make them so crash resistant/resilient?
In: Engineering
Everything except an extremely strong cage and frame bends and/or peels away taking much of the energy away from the driver. Basically the opposite of the cybertruck.
They use very rigid roll cages. Roll cages are only safe though when combined with other safety equipment like a multipoint harness, helmet, and Hans device (neck restraint device). This type of safety equipment is extremely inconvenient to use in day to day driving so regular road going cars trade some safety for a more convenient 3-point seatbelt, airbags, and crumple zones that purposefully deform to absorb energy.
EDIT: Not to say NASCAR and other motorsports can’t incorporate crumple zones too, but they will still have a super rigid crash structure directly surrounding the driver.
Short answer A LOT of R&D. NASCAR has done thousands of crash tests and simulations to design to be as safe as possible. In terms of collisions there are multiple crumple zones built into the body to compress to absorb impacts. Regards to roll overs, there are multiple flaps over the car that get deployed during times of negative air pressure and they are angled in such a way that they act like a sail to catch air and keep the car on the ground.
[Here’s](https://youtu.be/HEfaVUkEwps?si=oDsKxaNPXlnuwpsU&t=807) a nice animated overview of all the safety features built into a NASCAR Car
For the driver, full roll cages, the seats, the helmets, the head and neck safety devices. For preventing the rollovers, there are flaps that get blown up by the air moving over the car when the car spins that act as air brakes to help keep the car from rolling or going airborne.
Others have commented on some of the design aspects that make them tough. But as to WHY they are built so tough comapred to other types of similarly-fast race cars (F1, indy/cart racing, etc) its their origin as actual stock-based cars.
Stock Car racing really started in the prohibition era. The guys who went around trasnporting illegally-made liquor were called moonshiners or moonshine runners. To keep off the radar of law enforcement, they would typically do this in normal-looking everyday sedan cars. But under the bodywork these cars were souped-up with high perofrmance motors (to escape from cops), beefy susepnsions so they handled better and could take the abuse of driving fast down back-country roads, and handle the load of several hundred pounds of liquor and bottles. As often happens with men (especially rednecks), eventually this turned into unofficial competitions to see who had the fastest car. Even after prohibition ended, this style of racing (driving cars with stock-looking bodywork but tricked out motors, chasses, suspensions etc) stayed popular in the south. Eventually this would go on to become what we now call NASCAR (Nat’l Association for **Stock Car** Automotive RAcing). In the 50s and 60s this really blew up, as the major US auto manufacturers found that a racing series that had car that looked JUST LIKE the cars in their showrooms was great marketing, especially as the perofmrance “muscle car” era took off. The expression was “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” (most NASCAR races are held on Sundays). OVer time the cars bcame more and more race-car-like, and bore less and less resemblance to their actual stock cars. Where now we’ve got “Stock car” races where none of the cars look like actual stock cars being offered for sale, and many of them are “models” of cars that arent even sold anymore.
However, those roots in “stock car” racing still influence the overall type of car built. They aren’t “open wheel” cars like F1 or Indy/CART racing (where the wheels are totally exposed, not contained inside the bodywork). This alone makes the cars a lot more tolerant of crashes and slight bumps during the race (the tires and suspension are protected from a lot of impacts). They also tend to be a LOT heavier, since they have to maintain a vaguely-stock-ish appearance (full bodywork). A lot of little things like that baked into the car requirements leftover from their roots as stock cars, that make the cars inherently heavier, beefier and a bit tougher than other top-tier (and somewhat faster as a result) racing series.
End result is that NASCAR has a lot more incidental contact during a race (“rubbing is racing” is a common expression), little bumps and minor collisions and wall-scrapes that would compeltely disable an F1 car and possibly kill the driver happen doens of times in a race. Hell, even the agressiveness of the race series is impacted. A lower-tier NASCAR driver might pass more vehicles in a single race that the F1 driver who wins the awards for the most passes during an entire SEASON. Passing in F1 is a lot more fraught, andy contact could spell disaster. Not so much NASCAR
Buncha answers here and no mention of SAFER and HANS??? That hit that Kyle took yesterday was not far from the level of impact that took Dale. He came right out of halth inspection but sounded a little startled/rattled. That was a HUGE hit.
1. a crashs appearance has nothing to do with its dangers
2. a high center of gravity (the scourge of the SUViasation) leads to rollovers
3. a general helmet mandate for motorists can be argued on your observations
4. a real answering of your questions will get you a phd. The prospects of those you sometimes see in the aftermath of crashes with their clipboard and cameras
Roll cages, 5-point harnesses, helmets, and protective suits.
The roll cage does most of the heavy lifting and prevents the driver from being crushed when the car gets hit, rolls, flips, etc.
The 5-point harness is basically a super seatbelt that keeps the driver from being ejected from the vehicle or tossed around inside the car during a crash.
The helmet protects the driver’s head from impacts that might result from the crash. They also have a neck restraint that prevents them from breaking their neck due to whiplash.
The protective suit they wear covers the whole body and protects the driver from glass & debris that would normally cut them in the event of a crash. It also offers protection from being degloved if they end up sliding accross the pavement. Which is why the same type of suits are also worn by people who race motorcycles and ATVs. The suit is also flame retardant and offers some level of protection against fire.
Another thing that helps is that those cars have a very low center of gravity, and are aerodynamically designed to have a lot of down force. Which helps to prevent them from rolling.
The last thing to mention is that there is a highly qualified rescue crew present at every race, which means aid can be rendered almost immediately after a crash.
They’re mostly roll cage, also they’re very low to the ground. American cars, especially in the last 10-15 years, prioritize being tall because riding at a higher height makes people feel safer. They feel threatened by all the giant pickup trucks so all the SUVs need to be huge too. My mom drives an SUV that has a rollover warning printed on the sun shade so it’s right in front of your eyes when you get in the driver’s seat
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