High-speed and complex road conditions make it easy for vehicles to reach limit conditions, increasing the risk of instability. Consequently, there is an urgent need to solve the problem of vehicle stability and safety. In this paper, adaptive stability control is studied in BEVs driven by in-wheel motors. Based on the sliding model algorithm, a joint weighting control of the yaw rate and sideslip angle is carried out, and a weight coefficient is designed using a fuzzy algorithm to realize adaptive direct yaw moment control. Next, optimal torque distribution is designed with the minimum sum of four tire load rates as the optimization objective. Then, combined with the road adhesion coefficient and the maximum motor torque constraint, the torque distribution problem is transformed into a functionally optimal solution problem with constraints. The simulation results show that the direct yaw moment controller based on the adaptive sliding mode algorithm has a good control effect on the yaw rate and sideslip angle, and it can effectively improve vehicle adaptive stability control. In the optimal torque distributor based on road surface recognition, the estimated error of road adhesion is within 10%, and has a greater margin to deal with vehicle instability, which can effectively improve vehicle adaptive stability control.