Tires are more than just rubber tubes. There's the top treaded area which you can see, but the tire's main structure lies in the fabric cords underneath. Here's a cutaway look at an old tire:
You can see where the tread is bonded to the fabric. The tread doesn't provide much strength, just a harder wearing surface to grip the road. The fabric is what resists the 90+ psi air pressure inside the tire. You can also see steel wires at the bottom:
The fabric is sewn around these wires to create a tire bead, which is supposed to resist stretching enough to keep the tire seated inside the rim. More expensive "folding" tires use Kevlar cords instead of steel wires to reduce the tire's weight a little bit.
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