Hosted by Phil Keoghan, it featured eleven teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, competing in a race around the world in order to win US$1,000,000.
Starting in New York City, racers traveled through Iceland, Belgium, Morocco, France, the Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Bahrain, Thailand, and Hong Kong before returning to the United States and finishing in the San Francisco Bay Area.
As happened before in the twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh seasons, the show's official website announced that they would begin filming on October 1, 2017, at Washington Square Park in New York City, and invited fans to join them as they saw the new teams off.
[5] On October 8, photographs were posted to social media of teams playing pétanque at the Place des Lices in Saint-Tropez, France.
[9] Host Phil Keoghan said that the casting focus for this season was to pick the most competitive lineup of teams in Amazing Race history.
The cast included former NBA players Cedric Ceballos and Shawn Marion, IndyCar racers Conor Daly and Alexander Rossi, freestyle skiers Kristi Leskinen and Jen Hudak, Well-Strung members Trevor Wadleigh and Chris Marchant, and competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Tim Janus.