I obviously know what to be in a wreck means, but it’s not something I would naturally say. Just saying it to myself “The traffic’s backed up on the Kennedy because of a wreck near the Circle Interchange” just sounds a little odd to my ears. I would say “accident” or “bad accident” or “crash.”
An Aggie went hunting and shot two deer. When he went to the taxidermist, he was asked if he wanted them mounted. “No,” the Aggie replied, “kissing will be fine.”
When we moved to the South and I first heard someone refer to a shopping cart as a “buggy,” I knew we were in a very different (and frightening) world indeed.
I would say wreck sometimes. Not for small accidents, but for big ones. If there’s more than one car involved, it’s a pile-up. If a news report said ‘major delays on the M1 Southbound due to a wreck at junction 12,’ I’d wonder why they said wreck instead of crash, but only because it sounds more informal than crash, car accident, or whatever other formal term such a report would use.
Course, I am from the South. Of England.
There’s a show on Speed called “Wrecked”. It’s about tow truck drivers, and it’s filmed in Chicago. Most of the wrecks involve single tractor trailers stuck in mud. I’m sure this info just confuses things for you!
Hmph. Maybe it’s an old person thing?
Hmmm… this may explain an argument I once had with my manager when I worked in local news. In my reports, I referred to “fluke” car crashes (like “swerved to avoid a deer”) as “accidents,” and avoidable crashes (such as one involving a drunk or inattentive driver) as “wrecks.” The station manager wanted me to use the term “accident” exclusively. I disagreed. Firmly, and eventually, loudly. To me, there is a very clear difference…
I second that. I’m from WI, and it was always “I was stuck behind this nasty accident; sorry I was late for work…” Never “wreck” in those instances. But I understand it. Wreck is a verb… wrecker is a tow truck…
Wreck or crash for the big stuff. “What happened to him?” “Car crash” or “Wreck” or “Major accident.” “Car crash” would probably be my first instinct to say.
Small stuff is “an accident” or “a fender bender.”
ETA: Appalachian Ohio
Native Southern Nevadan here (we actually exist ;)!)…
I use both car accident (so and so got into a car accident) and wreck (there was a wreck on the way to work today)- I think I use wreck more as a “I don’t know the specifics, but it looked bad enough” way.
I use “wreck” almost exclusively when it involves a accident or bad incident with livestock- I find most of my horsie/doggie friends too. I even named a sheepdog (border collie) “Wreck” as a tongue in cheek name of what I hoped he wouldn’t have.
Wrecker? I barely knew her! I use both ‘accident’ and ‘wreck’ interchangeably, just whatever I feel like using that day.
“Trolley” and “pram”. 
Yeah and when it started raining his upholstery got ruined because he couldn’t put the top up.
Milwaukee. I’d probably refer to it as a “car crash” in the same context. But I wouldn’t blink if someone called the same thing a “wreck.”
Boyfriend (who has lived in Tenn most of his life) apparently uses “wreck” as a verb to mean anything from a minor brush with another vehicle to an out-an-out pile-up. That’s the only way I can interpret it, anyway. We’ll be driving along, I’ll swerve to avoid something in the road like a dead skunk, and he’ll yell out “don’t WRECK the car!”. To me, from California, it ain’t a wreck unless it’s a hunk of crumpled metal. So I just have to tell myself he’s not implying my driving skills are that horrible.
I’d be a lot less likely to ever say wreck than (car) accident, or (car) crash, or fender-bender. I am even jarred when people up here call the tow truck a “wrecker”. A wrecker should be something that causes a wreck, not something that cleans up after them. And half the time, the “wrecker” is pulling someone out of a ditch–so, tow truck fits even better.
Oh, and as a side note: I would **not **refer to what I call a “tow truck” as a “wrecker,” and it would surprise me if anyone around here did.
I wouldn’t call it a “wrecker” either. It’s a tow truck.
I grew up in Mass., transplanted to California.
I usually use “wreck” when speaking of a single car, and “accident” as a plural of wrecks.
I have also used the verb form “wrecked a car”.
When I liven in Norfolk VA (quite some time ago), the radio traffic reporter always referred to a car stopped by the side of a road - regardless of its state - as a “wreck”. This would include a car that had a flat tire, or one that had run out of gas.