I had the Protectobots and Stunticons when I was a kid so I always consider them to the rival teams even though fiction never backed that up.

To me it made sense that these two teams were the regular vehicles (except Drag Strip) that you'd see on the streets. While the Aerialbots and Combaticons were the military vehicles (except Silverbolt) that you'd see in war not when you popped into town.