And also they're inconvenient and don't auto adjust.

3-point belts are made to be as quick and fool proof as possible so that people actually use them, and use them correctly. Importantly, they auto-retract so that they are worn in the proper position.

When you put on 5-point belts, you have to 4 times as many latches to operate, and you have to adjust all 5 belts -- and in the proper order. If you tighten the belts in the wrong order, they won't protect you properly. It is not intuitive -- I have a car with 5-points and the passengers who manage to figure out how to latch them almost universally tighten the belts wrong.

Yeah, a 5 point would suck if you had a dress on.

Dumb question: how do race cars and their drivers handle "blind spots"?

Edit to answer my own question: apparently they use spotters that radio in to them whether or not it's clear, and (at least in NASCAR) the cars don't have side mirrors but have an extra long rear view mirror.

They also only drive forwards which helps a lot.

When I was a kid on the farm, all the transmissions in the grain trucks were modified so you could only go forward. Too many accidents driving backwards with bad sight lines. Its a strange thing at first but you get used to always parking with a forward exit.

And less of a modification on an older farm -- backing up horses was hard enough that many older farms will already be designed for one-way traffic, with all eg barns allowing you to pull through.

huh, never thought of that before but that makes complete sense. All the farms I ever worked on were newer mostly created out of irrigation projects from the new deal. All mechanical at that point.