This paper aims to evaluate the combined impact of the communication topology (CT) and vehicular spatial distribution (SD) on mixed traffic of human-driven vehicles (HDVs) and connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). A generalized car-following (CF) model is presented to capture mixed traffic dynamics, integrating the effects of the CT, human reaction time, information delay and the optimal velocity changes with memory. Then, the linear stable condition of the model is derived using the perturbation method. Finally, extensive simulations are conducted under different CTs (i.e., multiple-predecessor leader following (MPLF) topology, predecessor following (PF) topology, and predecessor-leader following (PLF) topology) and six kinds of SDs. The results reveal that the MPLF topology demonstrates the best steady performance (i.e., stability) and dynamic performance (i.e., smoothness), and that the SD where CAVs are concentrated at the front of the traffic flow shows superior dynamic performance.