[5] He is a South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) Scholarship holder and was coached by Adrian David a Romanian former international oarsman.

[10] McRae began his international career competing with Matt Bolt in a Double scull at the 2005 World Rowing Junior Championships.

[12] In their first race at Beijing, the Australian crew of McRae, Daniel Noonan, Brendan Long and Chris Morgan broke the world record to win their heat.

[15] In the final the Australian quad crew was unable to capitalise on their earlier world record form and finished fourth.

In 2016 along with Karsten Forsterling, Cameron Girdlestone and Belonogoff, McRae won the silver medal in the Australian quad to at the Rio Olympics 2016.