Remember, the accelaration curve of a car, assuming the tires are hooking up, follows the TORQUE curve. This is modified by the gear you are in, so it's better to have 100 lb-ft with a 3:1 reduction than 125 lb-ft with a 2:1 reduction (300lb-ft vs 250 lb-ft at the wheels). So a peaky engine with no midrange will accelerate slowly through the middle of the rev range, then really pick up just before the shift. A car with a slightly flatter tq curve will pull harder for the first part of each gear, but not quite as hard towards peak. As you can see, area under the tq curve is the critical part. Also, only the part you use counts: If a redline shift puts you at 4k in the next gear, then what the engine does below 4k only counts in first, where traction is probably the issue anyway, thanks to the high multiplier effect of the low first gear.
