Virginia topography, from the The Global Land One-kilometer Base Elevation (GLOBE) Project
If you look at the mountains of Virginia, do you see a single range? If you see more than one range of mountains, where do you define the Appalachians vs. the Blue Ridge vs. the Alleghenies? You can be a "lumper" or a "splitter," as a matter of personal preference - the cultural terms for the mountains might not match the geological distinctions.
If you grew up on in Virginia near the Fall Line or in Tidewater, odds are you were a lumper. All those bumps to the west were interchangeably the "Blue Ridge" or the "Appalachians" or "the mountains."
If you live near Route 29 or west of it, you're probably a splitter who distinguishes the Blue Ridge from the Alleghany/Allegheny Plateau. If you live in the Shenandoah Valley, you don't always assume the mountains are to the west... If you live in Blacksburg or Roanoke, you might be careful and refer to specific mountains - Tinker Mountain, Brush Mountain, etc. - rather than say "I'm going mountain biking in the Blue Ridge on Saturday."
For many people, the "Valley and Ridge Province" usually stops at the edge of the "Appalachian Plateau," and the edge is the "Allegheny Front." If someone refers to the Appalachian Mountains, assume they are lumpers and may be including the Blue Ridge.
The rocks that form the Appalachian Plateau, west of the Allegheny Front, were not metmorphosed as much as the rocks in the Valley and Ridge province. (The Blue Ridge is one of those ridges, if you chose to "lump.") The rocks east of the Allegheny Front were tilted and twisted by various continental collisions, but the energy was absorbed by the creation of the valleys and ridges so the plateau is composed of relatively flat layers of rock. The Appalachian Plateau west of the Allegheny Front is composed of mostly-flat sedimentary rocks, tilting gradually westward.