The crash test chamber used by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is basically just a giant photo/video studio. It’s been specifically designed with adding light boxes in mind and the general purpose of crashing cars and recording the crashes as accurately as possible for scientific research and public information.
In the IIHS published a video that details their photo/video work and the processing that goes on behind the scene to obtain the high quality results that we’re now used to. They use a variety of cameras which vary based on necessity
The room they take the cars after they’ve crashed them is just a big softbox making diffuse light, which is perfect for adding contrast to even the smallest details. That room really is like any fancy photo studio you’d see around the world.
Scroll down for the video.