My best friend's Dad was an actual rocket scientist in the 50s and 60s (MIT grad and all).He worked for a defense contractor and,as a result,spent a lot of time in Nevada. He used to tell us stories about some of the highways out there having *no* speed limit.
I found that fascinating at the time but today...not so much.
For a long time I had a dream of renting a BMW in Germany and doing 120MPH on the Autobahn...but no longer.
You're statistically safer on the Autobahn with cars moving at 120 MPH than you are here in the United States at half of that speed (even as we may religiously set our cruise controls to make sure that they never ever go over a certain speed).
Speed may or may not kill, but stupidity certainly does, and that's where the American motorist loses in every comparison to the rest of the developed world.