There are so many folks that do great tires on this forum, but I'm not one of them.
Yes, realistic tires require extra parts. I don't know how far you want to take realism.
I was trying to find a Sci Fi truck I built using a mod of the Samsara tires from
www.toposolitario.com - Samsara, utility vehicle. It must have been given away or the cat ran off with it. But I rescaled Marcos's wheel to fit the truck diameter-wise, then I narrowed the tread. Using Gimp, I textured the tire differently and found a tread design I liked (that wouldn't be too much of a bear to cut out) and scaled it to wrap around the tire, slightly overlapping the sidewalls. I didn't quite have the length of the tread worked out, but that worked to my advantage. It was a little long, so I cut it shorter than a full wrap, and the slightly flattened part where there was no tread became the area touching the ground, giving it a more realistic appearance. I wish I could say I planned it that way, but it was a lucky happenstance