My limited understanding of this is that, when you are present to sign the credit slip, then no other confirmation is required. If you are shopping via phone or web, then a further piece of information is needed to confirm that you actually are in possession of the card. That information can be ZIP or the CVR code from the reverse of the card.
I’ve gotten rejects when using a credit card online because I used a ZIP code that didn’t match the billing address for the card.
I was thinking mainly of self service fuel pumps. Often I choose to just fuel up and not go inside the store. It seems if “credit” is selected you are prompted to enter a zip code. I have never tried entering a bogus one so I don’t know if it would deny the transaction or not.