Torque doesn't accelerate your car. Wheel torque does. And the maximum wheel torque you can put down at any road speed is a function of gearing, torque and rpm. And what do we derive from torque and rpm? Horsepower.
The reason people say that "Horsepower sells cars, Torque wins races" is that peak horsepower is a meaningless figure... because your car is not at peak horsepower at all times.
Instead, 0-60 mph is determined by how much average horsepower you can put down in each gear going up to 60 mph. Average horsepower which must be calculated from dyno readouts, but which can be estimated by looking at peak torque and peak horsepower together.
-----
While it's true a car accelerates faster at torque peak than horsepower peak (assuming the two are separate), two cars with the same peak torque figures will not accelerate the same if one makes peak torque at a lower rpm. Why? Because the car making peak torque at a higher rpm is making more horsepower, and can use torque multiplication more effectively than the lower-revving car.
-----
I'd go further and talk about the additional torque multiplication of smaller tires, the effects of drivetrain loss and tire slip, and aerodynamics... but since tire size has a relatively minor effect compared to gears, tire slip is variable dependent on condition, drivetrain loss is a whole bunch of fudged-up estimation and the equations for aero drive me batty... I won't.
