‘The Amazing Race’ Fans Believe Teams Need to Learn 1 Skill Before Racing
The Amazing Race requires teams to have many skills to be successful while racing around the world for $1 million. They have to be expert navigators by only using a map, thrive under pressure, and be excellent communicators. However, according to fans of The Amazing Race, racers must master one ability before joining the show.
Fans are frustrated that some teams in ‘The Amazing Race’ have trouble driving a manual car
The Amazing Race Season 34 teams had to drive a manual car during a Megaleg in Italy. And many of them had problems with stalling out.
One Reddit user started a thread and wrote, “Why don’t people learn to drive a stick before going on Amazing Race — you know you are going to need to at some point — same with making fire on Survivor, learn before you go!”
A fan commented, “Because they cast people who will make for an interesting and entertaining show and are not looking for the 11/12 best pairs that travel well, know how to navigate, know how to drive stick, know a bunch of languages, are super fit and have great cardio, communicate great with each other.”
“Is it just me? Driving manual is not a difficult ‘skill’ to learn,” someone else added. “When I was first learning to drive, one of the cars I practiced on was manual, and I got the hang of it the first day. Just press your right foot while lifting the left with even movements! I laugh out loud when I see people struggling with it.”
Others defend the teams in ‘The Amazing Race’ Season 34
While some were judgemental of the teams who struggled during the Megaleg in The Amazing Race Season 34, other fans rushed to their defense.
“Contrary to popular belief, most contestants know this and have taken lessons and practiced,” a Reddit user pointed out. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to be experts at this. Cars are designed differently, so you can learn in one car and be fine and then be thrown into a totally different car and panic because it’s not the same.”
A fan added, “It takes a fair amount of experience to be comfortable driving manual. Especially on all different road types and conditions when your focus has to be on 100 things. It isn’t a skill you just learn, and all is well.”
“If you watch some of the recap podcasts, [Emily Bushnell and Molly Sinert] and [Luis Colon and Michelle Burgos] both say they did practice,” another Reddit user said. “However, this specific clutch/stick had a different reverse mechanism that they didn’t find in the practice manual cars. There was no ‘R,’ cause you had to push the stick down.”
Derek addresses his difficulty driving a stick shift in episode 4
During Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss’s recap of The Amazing Race Season 34 Episode 4 on YouTube, they discussed a bad experience while driving a manual car to get to the second Roadblock of the Megaleg.
“For people who have never driven a manual car before, the hardest part is getting the car from a stop to a start,” Derek explained. “You have to get the gears to catch … If you’re not revving the engine fast enough, your car is going to stall.”
He added, “We realize we have to drive up this road of death. It is literally a 50-degree incline. Probably not literally a 50-degree incline … If you were able to just keep the momentum of your car, you’d have no problems. But I’m an idiot, and I saw a yield sign. So I was like, ‘Let me yield to traffic.’ There was no traffic. There was no one coming to drive up this one-lane road.”
“So I pull up to the Stairway to Heaven, and If I had just kept driving, it would’ve been fine,” Derek continued. “But I pull up to it, and I come to a complete and full stop, which was the bane of my existence. I’m revving up and stalling out. And at this point, there’s a whole line of 10 cars behind me.” Claire interjected, “People are flipping us off. People are cursing at us in Italian.”
“Every time I stall out, my car is sliding back down this hill another five inches closer to the car behind me,” Derek said. “And I swear we were an inch away from hitting the car behind me. If we didn’t get on this go, we’re going to get in an accident. Our car revs up, we get into first gear, and we’re going up this hill … We make it to the top of the hill, and finally, we get to the Roadblock.”
The Amazing Race Season 34 airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.
