He isn't really slow, its really more that he is inconsistent. Speed isn't really a defining aspect of the character, and as such its rarely demonstrated as an advantage or as something that you can exploit about the character. This is why when Thor fights Silver Surfer, Superman, Gladiator, Sentry, Hulk, Hercules, Wolverine, Juggernaut, Mongoose, so on he is written a bit different each time. Being aware that he is a character we can know why this is. Pretending the character is real and has set concrete attributes we can measure objectively by virtue of feats is an entirely different matter.
One story for example often mentioned a lot is the one where Wolverine and Thor have a small scuffle, and Thor mentions something about Wolverines speed. The writer Frank Tieri was basically putting the two characters together for a story because Wolverine had yet to have an iconic encounter with Thor but he has with virtually every other Marvel character. That and Thor had a movie coming out - the main point being here is that if Frank Tieri was given an opportunity to write a Wolverine vs Superman, Wolverine vs Wonder Woman, Wolverine vs Flash does anyone with a good understanding of comics industry and knowledge of these characters really sincerely expect that those encounters will go down like people imagine it would in Battles? No not likely. A. Thats never how fiction or science has worked. B. Chances are that the or a writer will try to balance the characters abilities, powers and personalities to make the story work and its highly likely that that story will be inconsistent of contradict dozens of other stories.
As for why Thor is especially inconsistent speed wise? Not many of his peers are that fast. Chances are a majority of DC characters for example are fast in order to keep up with Flash. Then Superman as well. Has a flow on effect. Quicksilver has never been that fast nor as durable as Flash, and characters like Silver Surfer and Gladiator are in space a lot. Speed in comics is also a big jar of problems as far as suspension of disbelief goes. Its hard to depict, its usually used inconsistently and a lot of writers don't really consider the ramifications of characters abilities when writing them. Recently in an Avengers OGN Ms Marvel or Iron Man explained that Thor had been tracked at Mach 32 but they might beat him getting to a destination in a Quinjet because his line was bad, and they could go another route, but that the Quinjet would be screwed up after. I know thats travel speed, not what you asked for, but similar point as far as if Thor is as strong as Hulk, and the (one of) most durable Avenger, has fighting/warrior skill and can fly and has a weapon and can call thunder down - err... can out race the Quinjet even? What's the point of the rest of the team really? The first thing an Avengers writer can forget about in regards to Thor is thus things like reaction speed. No one will really care or notice its gone. Though... if DC brought Marvels Thor, naturally he'd be written to be competitive with Superman, Flash, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, qualities like speed included, and so on. So its really ultimately about context. The same can be applied to most comic book characters in some context or another.
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