For the curious readers, backface culling (at least in the way fixed-function OpenGL does it, and probably newer APIs still do) is not based on face normals, it's based on winding order of triangles, so it works even if normals are not used.

Also face normals (flat shading) are generally considered older tech than per-vertex lighting (Gouraud shading). Newer stuff since 2008-ish is generally per-pixel using normal maps for detail.