Street Tires Vs. Racing Tires: What's The Difference?

Although NASCAR stands for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, the cars we see on the high banks of Daytona couldn't be farther from stock. The races of yesteryear might have slightly more similarities between what's on track and what's on the showroom floor, but NASCAR, like the rest of modern motorsports, has a much more defined line between road car and race car.

For better or for worse, there's plenty that technologically separates what you see on track versus what's on the street. While much of the technology developed in Formula One has made its way over to our everyday drivers, we don't need a new block every 1,500 miles like Verstappen and Norris. We don't know what versions of Honda's new prelude will reach the roads, but the 650 horsepower rear-wheel drive variant seen in the Super GT is likely not in the cards. Our steering wheels, while a vast upgrade from the ones decades back, fortunately won't set us back $100,000 for a replacement like in Formula One.

For the commute instead of the competition, many components of your car are made to a unique spec, and your tires are no exception. Although brands like Pirelli, Goodyear, and Firestone can be found both on race cars and road cars, what these brands make for the track couldn't be more different than what you have for the street.

Let's start with the biggest difference, which is also the most noticeable at first glance. While your road tires have channels and treads, the slicks seen on race cars are, well, slick. The smooth (and sometimes shiny) surface doesn't have any treads built into it. How come racing tires don't need treads, but our everyday cars do?

The simple answer is water. On a wet road surface, the grooves seen in road tires are there to channel water through the tire to prevent hydroplaning. On the other hand, racing slicks are made for only running dry, and are all rubber on the surface to get the biggest contact patch possible.

But if you've seen seemingly "dry races" get shocked by sudden rain, you know just how bad things can get on slicks in the wet. Without any way to channel the water, you're constantly sliding on top of any damp surface. Take a ride with Marco Andretti on the streets of Detroit, and you can see just how gnarly it can be:

Of course, in the case that it does rain during a race weekend, nearly every series has a wet weather compound on standby, with the same grooves seen on your road car to help drivers handle the wetness. Formula One even has semi-slick "intermediates". Those green-colored tires are perfect for that "crossover" point for when it's not dry enough for full slicks, but not coming down enough to justify the blue-colored wet tires.

In the dry, operation windows is the name of the game when it comes to separating slicks from streets. Since slicks are meant to only be used on a race track, they're designed to give the most grip at certain pressures and temperatures. This is why tire blankets are often used in some racing series to get heat into them before going out.  Your road tires, however, are meant for maximum grip at any speed, at any temperature, and — as we mentioned with the grooves — in any condition. Unlike slicks, you don't need to get up to a certain speed or temperature to get the maximum level of grip.

The pressures between slicks and streets vary greatly as well. Street tires usually run between 32 and 45 psi, but for Slicks, their pressures are only around 26 psi. That's because of just how volatile slicks are to temperatures. From standing still to driving at highway speeds, your everyday tires might get an extra 3 or 4 psi when they heat up. For slicks, that pressure gain can range from 8 to 12 psi.

Unsurprisingly, these slicks can also get quite a bit hotter than your road car's tires. You can still comfortably touch your tires after a drive, as they wouldn't be much more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. After a stint at full speed, however, racing slicks can easily get over 220 degrees Fahrenheit. Suddenly, it makes sense why pit crews wear gloves now.

While slicks would be awesome for ripping laps at your local track, they would be miserable during the nine-to-five drive. Not only would you have to constantly weave to keep pressure and temperature in the tires, but any rain or wetness on the way is going to lead to things getting sideways. Another feature we haven't talked about is the rigidity of the sidewalls. To handle the high loads of performance driving, racing tires are often stiffer, making bumpy commutes all the more uncomfortable.

On top of this, it wouldn't make the most sense financially. Since slicks have all their eggs in the basket of speed, their compound is often a rubber far softer than what you'd have in your road car. While it's faster, the tradeoff is lifespan, as these slicks barely reach a fraction of how long your road tires can last. Most street tires can easily reach tens of thousands of miles, but even the hardest compounds in Formula One can't make it over 120.

That doesn't reflect the lives of all slicks. Some drivers have found that harder compounds used for club racing can easily last over 10 sessions on a track before hitting a noticeable drop-off in performance. Still, that's only a fraction of how long you can drive most street tires before getting to the cords.