3ds max: Z-fighting when working with Large Objects
Unfortunately, I don't know how 3ds max handles its Z-buffer or its near and far planes so I can't give a definite answer. There are many ways the software could handle this.

However, you are on the right track. Z-fighting occurs when there is not enough numerical precision to distinguish two "objects" from the scene rendered at the same pixel. In such cases, the two pixels "fight" one another over which one is closest to the camera and flickering occurs.

These factors influence how a scene is susceptible to Z-fighting:


Number of bits used by the depth buffer (typically 24 or 32).
Whether the depth buffer uses float values or integers.
Whether the Z value 0 is used for the near or far plane (inverted depth buffer).
How close objects are to each other.
The size of the range between the near and far planes.


Of these, you really only have control over the near and far planes from what you say.  It looks like your model is too big for the default way 3ds max handles this so I suggest making the near plane value bigger. An increase of the near plane from 0.1 to 1.0 (*10) will give the same precision increase as dividing the far plane by 10.

For your other question, you usually get less Z-fighting when an object is closer because there is more precision in the depth buffer closer to the near plane.

Also, for your other question: Why do GPUs divide clip space Z by W, for position?

A nice Z precision visualizer: http://dev.theomader.com/depth-precision/