About what Shinanigans said;
When a person does a skid on cold tires, the surface of the tire becomes very hot quickly, ans starts smoking. For this to happen, it isn't required that the rest of the tire is hot enough to smoke. So really, the surface of the tire should be simulated separately to the bulk of the tire. See pic.
I think that would make it smoke as you think it should.

I think LFS already differentiates between surface temp and tread temp. Press and hold ctrl+shift while in F9 mode.

Wow, that's cool. I stand corrected.