12 years ago, I drove an 11-year-old low-end Opel (GM) with 6 months left to its enforced retirement in the continental Europe including Belgium, Netherlands, France, and Germany. I drove 140 km/h (87 mph). Other vehicles passed me just like I was standing. Recently, one of my colleagues rented a car from Marseille to Paris. He drove 160 km/h (100 mph). He told me that he was the slowest. Speeding is not an issue. The issue is how a highway is built.
Building high-speed highway is technically challenging. In either France or Germany (not Belgium and Netherlands), the road surface remains dry even under heavy rains. The penetration of a German highway has layers over 5 meters. Limiting highway speed not only wastes unnecessary time, but also put US automobile industry in an inferior position for competition, leading to the bankruptcy of both Chrysler and GM. Also, due to the unreasonable speed limit, the US automobile manufactures emphasize too much on putting a sofa, a toilet, or even a bar inside a car, rather than focusing on these key mechanical issues like high speed stability and manipulability. Again, in my personal view, the crash-proof has also been unreasonably emphasized, making people want to try Disney stuffs on the real reads.