The support for the eorror correction (that is, the additional data needed for the error correction to be used) is on the CD in many cases. I know that the data CD standard specifies some error correction algorithm to be used. I was under the impression that there was no EC on audio CDs, but I might be wrong about that.

Of course a plastic disk with some aluminum and paint cannot magically fix itself, but the drive's firmware can't pull corrected bits out of thin air, either.