Smoking from the belt area

I have a 2002 Chevy Malibu I have had it for a little over a year and a few days ago anytime I went into the drive it would knock, but it stopped when my brother and i put oil into my car, but the same day that i noticed the knocking, I popped my hood and noticed that the belt area was smoking, I pointed it out to my brother, but it didn’t smoke, so I thought that it was fine, it drove just fine, but i checked it when I dropped my son off with my brother and I saw the the belt area was still smoking, he checked and everything was moving and rotating. So I was wondering why is the belt area smoking?

The belt area may be smoking because you have an oil leak onto something hot. Impossible to more precise than that given how little you’ve been able to tell us.

More concerning is engine knock that goes away when you added oil. That tells me you are not checking the oil level nearly often enough. All engines use some oil. Some engines use a lot of oil, especially when older. It should never get below the bottom line on the dipstick. How many miles on this thing?