The competitors cannot fly but are each given an amount of money equivalent to the price of a one-way plane ticket to the final destination, which they can use to travel by land or by sea.

[1] Five pairs of racers travelled from the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London and finished at the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore.

The itinerary of the race covered countries in Europe and Asia with checkpoints in Greece, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, China and Cambodia.

[11] The first series featured five pairs of competitors at the start of the race: Natalie and Shameema, Jinda and Bindu, Darron and Alex, Josh and Felix, and Sue and Clare.

In this series, the no-fly rule was abandoned due to civil unrest in Ecuador which made land travel through the country unsafe - all the teams were flown from Colombia to Peru to continue the race.

[20] On 28 September 2022, the BBC announced that a third series of Race Across the World would enter production by the end of the year, which will be set wholly within Canada with a route from Vancouver, British Columbia to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

[5][6][21] In a subsequent press release dated 15 March 2023, the BBC revealed the five pairs of competitors as Cathie and Tricia, Claudia and Kevin, Ladi and Monique, Marc and Michael, and Mobeen and Zainib.

[22] In a move from its previous Sunday evening broadcast to a midweek timeslot, the air date for the first episode of the third series was confirmed as 22 March 2023.

China was omitted during the planning stage due to "time constraints and difficulties in travel in the aftermath of the global pandemic", so a flight was organised to move the contestants from Seoul to Hanoi.

[25] The teams were mother and daughter Brydie and Sharon, as well as Eugenie and Isabel; two friends, Alfie and Owen; husband and wife, Stephen and Viv; and brother and sister, Betty and James.

[27] On 27 July 2023, the BBC announced that the delayed celebrity edition of Race Across the World would air later that same year and revealed a route spanning 24 countries and over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) starting in Marrakesh, Morocco and finishing in Tromsø, Norway.

[9] In the same press release the BBC announced that this series would consist of 6 episodes and revealed the four pairs of competitors as weather presenter Alex Beresford and his father, Noel; former All Saints singer Melanie Blatt and her mother, Helene; McFly drummer Harry Judd and his mother, Emma and former British F4 Racing Driver Billy Monger and his sister, Bonny.

In the same press release the BBC confirmed that the series would once again consist of 6 hour-long episodes and revealed the four pairs of competitors as broadcaster Jeff Brazier and his son, Freddy; actor Kola Bokinni and his cousin, Mary Ellen; former model Kelly Brook and her husband, Jeremy and BBC Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills and his husband Sam.

[30] Jeff Robson of the i newspaper regarded the series as "flawed but engaging", and that although the show lacked the "challenges of some extreme travelogues, nor the sense of peril", it "succeeded in recreating the combination of unexpected highlights, soul-destroying lows and crucial budget decisions which characterised old-school seat of the pants travel".

[33] Anita Singh of The Telegraph thought "the casting is one of the strengths of the series" and she "can't help but warm to these wacky racers",[34] however, Chris Moss of the same paper was more negative; he found that the obstacles the contestants faced were "largely fictive" and the tension "fabricated", and thought the show used the "old idiot abroad trope", and the viewers were "asked not to marvel at faraway places but to engage with the participants".

[35] Equally negative was Barry Didcock of The Herald who considered the show's premise of travelling without flying "a frivolous exercise" and of questionable taste as the budget of racers would exceed that of a refugee at the Mexico-Guatemala border.

[42] The third season moved to RTHK TV 32 and began on 20 June 2024 and was titled as Race to North America in Chinese (鬥快去北美).

[44] In April 2021, TV2 and production company Strong began casting for a second season with an expected filming period from 10 October until the end of November 2021.