Because when you live in a country as large as the United States, you are on the road a lot more so your chances of dying on the road go up. The quoted statist

Because when you live in a country as large as the United States, you are on the road a lot more so your chances of dying on the road go up. The quoted statistic is not per unit of distance it’s just per 100,000 people so it’s biased towards places that are smaller.