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Some cars have their fenders set up to deflect air around the wheel wells.
Flares would make sense if they're more aerodynamic than the tire and wheel well. The problem with having a flare direct air around the front of the tire is you also have a flare at the back acting like a parachute. So how about a half flare?
More frontal area doesn't necessarily increase drag. In this case the wheel wells could be causing airflow to fan out or at least become turbulent. You can have an object sticking into airflow that makes a huge wake behind it, but it's not apparent in frontal area calculations.
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