The biggest Race Across the World disasters

It is no secret that Race Across the World can be gruelling and here are some of the biggest disasters contestants have faced along the way.

Some of the dramas have been planned for, where TV bosses have had to organise for the contestants to get a flight to ensure they can complete the race. However, sometimes dramas have arisen - leaving the stars with no choice but to pull out of the race.

From losing passports to running out of money, we take a look back at some of the biggest disasters the contestants have faced on different series of Race Across the World.

Forced to quit

Sometimes illness and tragedies happening back home, outside of the world of race, mean the contestants have no choice but to quit.

This goes back to the very first series where contestants Jinda and Bindu quit because of a family illness in the first episode. They were quickly replaced by Tony and Elaine who went onto win the first series of the reality format.

In the celebrity spin-off last year, fan favourites Billy Monger and his sister Bonny were forced to quit after receiving a shock message from home. Fans were gutted to see their favourites unable to complete the race.

During filming, the siblings sent a letter to the fellow races saying: "Dear guys, we are sorry to say to say a family emergency has meant that we’ve decided to leave the race. Wishing you all the best and catch you on home soil."

When the episode hit our screens, Monger shared an update on social media. He said: "Bonny and I were gutted to have to leave the race. A close family member had a bad accident so we had to get home. Thankfully all is OK now. We loved the journey."

Being robbed and losing passports

Running out of money is one of the biggest worries the contestants face while trying to reach the finish line on a tight budget. However, some of the contestants have even been robbed along the way in some of the biggest disasters to play out on the show.

In the second episode of series two, Shuntelle and Michael - who were dating at the time of the show - made the difficult decision to leave the show when Micheal's money belt went missing while travelling through Honduras. His money belt contained more than half of the team's budget they had been given for the show.

This series, viewers were shocked when James was robbed of his money belt in Cambodia and they were left fearing he would be out of the race with his sister Betty. Luckily the siblings managed to recover the money belt which still had his passport but their money was gone.

"The money is gone," James finally told his sister Betty. "It's only my passport in here. There was a 100,000 Cambodian and that was the last Cambodian money we had." It was equivalent to the siblings losing £26.04 which at the time was huge because the siblings were strapped for cash.

Betty and James were almost out the race again when this time Betty lost her passport as she left her bum bag behind on a bus. After a sleepless night during a homestay, the siblings were lucky to find that Betty's passport had been recovered at the bus station and they were able to continue with the race.

No-fly rule abandoned

Sometimes TV bosses have been able to plan around the drama. One of the first rules in Race Across the World is the contestants cannot travel via plane on their budget. However, there have been a few exceptions where this has been the only option for contestants.

This series Race Across the World contestants weren't able to travel through China. TV bosses had planned for this. Instead the stars got a flight from Sokcho to the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. During the episode no further explanation was offered, sparking questions online about why China had been left out of the route.

A Race Across The World spokesperson later told Yahoo: "At the time of planning the route, due to time constraints and difficulties in travel in the aftermath of the global pandemic, it was not possible for production to travel through China and so a flight was organised from Seoul to Hanoi."

Contestants have had to take a flight before while filming Race Across the World. In series two, contestants had to leave Ecuador because of the civil unrest. All the teams were flown from Colombia to Peru where they continued the race.

The flight offers the contestants no unfair advantages because TV bosses keep everything they can the same. Contestants pick up the race exactly where they left off, meaning they depart in the order they arrived at the previous checkpoint. This includes the same time gaps too. The only thing that has changed is the place where they are leaving.