It’s always struck me as odd that crumple zones help absorb impacts which makes cars safer. Yet race cars have roll cages which make them safer.
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A roll cage is ONLY safer if you’re really properly secured into the seat, like you should barely be able to move anything aside from your arms and legs, and you must be wearing a crash helmet for when your head does bang against the roll bars or other things.
This is why a roll cage in a car you drive on the street is NOT a good idea, you’ll get knocked out hitting your head on it in a crash unless you drive around wearing a helmet everywhere, which is gonna cause other issues. On the flip side, a racing seat and harness is NOT a good idea without a roll cage, because if your car rolls over and the roof crumples, you won’t be able to get out of the way!
A race car does still need to have enough of a crumple zone to manage how quickly you are brought to a stop (formula one type cars have some serious crash structures in the nose, side, and back, to handle hitting walls at high speeds), but the key thing is your whole body being so strapped in will come to a stop with the car, rather than the car mostly coming to a stop with you still loosely flying around inside, at the speed the car was previously going.
I do think it’s an interesting question, if every car on the road had full roll cages, and people strapped in with 5 point harnesses, and wearing helmets, would driving be safer? Not sure that question matters since it’s obviously so impractical. So we have our street cars designed knowing that people will be “floppy” inside, which requires big crumple zones to ensure the overall car doesn’t come to a stop too fast.
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