"What car is fastest?"
That should have a simple answer, right? Well..., no. Almost a year ago, on a Facebook group for the The Crew games, someone posed this question about The Crew: Motorfest. They expected a simple answer, as if one single car is simply the fastest and that's the end of it. They were mistaken, and didn't understand why. They were not alone, however. Several other community members were equally lost on the idea.
At face value, the question of fastest should be as simple as nailing down which car has the highest top speed. That should clearly be "fastest," right? Well, if we hop into a race around Watkins Glen, Road Atlanta, or Mid-Ohio, me in a Formula One car with a top speed of a little over 200 MPH and you in an Indy car with a top speed of like 240-ish, you might expect to have the clear advantage since your car is so much faster than mine. However, I'll leave you in the dust and after a while come back around to lap your faster car.
How is this possible? Well, if we were simply racing in a very long straight line, your top speed advantage would destroy me. Unfortunately, in our realistic scenario, you'd be lucky to think about your top speed, while I will have the advantage in almost every part of the track. I will be able to corner faster, I will accelerate out of corners faster, I don't need to slow as much on approach to corners, and I can decelerate faster meaning I can carry faster speed for longer before I need to go for the brakes. Your car is "faster" at the top end, but I have the advantage over almost all of a lap, which adds up to me getting around the track faster than your faster car.
Excelling on asphalt doesn't translate to domination offroad, either. An F1 car is unrivaled on pavement, but not particularly great on a dirt road or tearing across a cow pasture. There are other "slower" vehicles designed to perform well in such conditions. We can tell you that such-and-such car is fastest, and it might be if you're speeding around Talladega, but that will go right out the window if we're ramping over sand dunes.
