system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do rough tires grip the road better than smooth ones? Wouldn't smooth tires give more surface contact, and therefore more friction and better grip?
gpt
No... Smooth tires grip better than textured ones. Your intuition is correct. NASCAR, Indy car, and other race cars use smooth tires. Road tires use tread because the real world isn't a perfectly maintained race track. We normal drivers have to worry about rain, sand, oil, etc. The tread helps with those as the expense of not giving you perfect road contact, which really, most cars don't need.