Starting in Palmetto Bay, Florida, outside of Miami, racers traveled through Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Mozambique, Tanzania, Poland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Macau before returning to the United States, traveling through Guam and Hawaii, and finishing in San Francisco.

As early as 2004, there had been talk about an all-star edition of The Amazing Race, with speculation that it would occur during the eighth season, just as it had with Survivor.

These rumors were fueled by reports that season 4 winner Reichen Lehmkuhl had been invited to appear in a future all-star race.

[3] Speculation continued for the next few years, particularly after CBS aired all-star editions of their two other reality competition series, Survivor and Big Brother.

[12] Flo Pesenti and Drew Riker, who began dating after meeting during season 3, were invited to participate, but Flo reportedly declined because she felt the first race had brought out the worst in her, and her season 3 winning partner, Zach Behr, was not invited to join her.

A series of thirteen web episodes presented the eliminated contestants living together in a common house in their sequester location in Acapulco, Mexico.

CBS posted short videos on its website after each episode aired in the Pacific time zone to show the eliminated teams interacting at the villa.

"[25] Simon Brew of Den of Geek wrote that "the procession of camera hoggers in this season ultimately, come the final round, left the audience with a real problem: there was nobody to root for.

"[26] Roger Holland of PopMatters wrote that "TAR-11 started poorly, stuttered and staggered around the globe like the zombified remains of its former self, and finished on an absolute all-time low.

"[28] Sarah Kickler Kelber of The Baltimore Sun wrote that "all in all, it was a fun season, even if it's not a result I would have predicted.