What is it that makes Nascar cars so safe during crashes? I’ve seen cars wreck out at nearly 200mph and it looks like a bumper car crash.

Question

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

Answer 1

Bad crashes happen with a speed delta. On the street, the car is moving fast but the tree is not. Sudden deceleration events can be deadly. Nascar has worked hard to eliminate a lot of the solid barriers that would lead to a scary difference in speed.