While the counties record titles as a matter of convenience, the true title is determined by the courts.

Other countries have centralized registries so that if the country's database says X piece of land is owned by Y, that's final. In the us it can be litigated and title insurance comes into play for the buyer who purchased it fraudulently.

Like any statement about the US, "it's complicated".

For example, in Massachusetts there are two types of real estate: recorded and registered. See https://www.deeds.com/articles/understanding-the-difference-... for a quick rundown.

In some cases, the property that goes with a single house will actually be made up of two bits of land, one of which is recorded and one of which is registered. In other cases it's all recorded or all registered.

Now this is not a nationwide centralized registry, it is a state-wide registry within Massachusetts, and my understanding is that the sort of litigation you could get for recorded land does not happen for registered land, because transfer of registered land is already a Land Court decision.

Key quote from the above link's description of registered land:

    As the current state of title is sequentially updated
    by the registration of future transactions, it embodies
    a certificate of title that not only evidences title,
    but in fact guarantees title and is subject only to the
    exceptions provided by statute and matters of federal law.