We have a perception of the asteroid belt as this place where there are massive ricks tumbling though space as far as the eye can see. The reality is that the average distance between asteroids is more than a million miles and it would be a fairly rare event to see another asteroid if you were on the surface of one.
They could actually be fairly close and you still might not see one because it’s absorbing more of the sun rays than reflecting it.
How often have asteroids passed by earth and we only knew about it afterwards?