Rules You Didn't Know 'The Amazing Race' Contestants Have to Follow

For 31 seasons, The Amazing Race has captivated audiences. If you're unfamiliar with the show, allow us to break it down for you: 11 teams travel the world in a 2,500-mile journey, competing in challenges and solving clues along the way. The final team standing wins a prize of $1 million. But in addition to participating in the competitions, contestants have to follow these 40 rules if they want to take home the prize.

While the process to get your application considered on The Amazing Race is a slow one, just make sure you'll be 21 before the start of the competition, or you won't be considered.

Nope, you can't team up with just any TAR enthusiast. You have to know your teammate for at least one year before applying.

Mother-daughter, husband-wife, husband-husband, wife-wife, brother-sister, these are pairings that audiences can "relate" to and want to watch. "It can't just be, 'We're best friends and we have a good time.' We have to see, underlying, that there's a little drama there, a little spark," co-creator Elise Doganieri told UpRoxx.

The Amazing Race has a type. "We always cast for Type A personalities, super-competitive people," Doganieri told UpRoxx.

TAR has yet to do an all-celebrity lineup, but there have been plenty of high profile contestants who have competed over the years, including retired NBA stars and former teammates, Cedric Ceballos and Shawn Marion. The show even did a collaboration with franchises like Survivor and Big Brother.

Although these tapes were vital in getting cast on the show early on, in later seasons production started scouting for contestants as a means to get the most interesting contestants possible.

Contestants can only tell a small group of essential personnel, like a spouse or parents. Each of those in-the-know people are sent a non-disclosure agreement, which results in a $10 million lawsuit with CBS if broken.

Production gives each team a list of countries to obtain visas for, and the process must be handled before they start the race. But that doesn't mean the contestants know where they're going beforehand, as they don't actually visit all of the countries on the list. Sneaky.

While the contestants are sprinting around the world, the camera crew is right there beside them. "Before the race, you have to carry the equipment that the video crew carries to feel how much it weighs. It is very very heavy. They are in shape," former TAR contestant Gary Wojnar shared on Quora.

Contestants must leave their wallets at home. No cash, no credit card, nothing. Instead, production gives each team a sum of money at the start of each leg to cover the expense of lodging, food, supplies, and anything else they might need.

If for some reason a team runs out of money, they're allowed to try to make more by means of begging, bartering or trading, selling their belongings, or essentially any legal way.

If teams don't spend all of the money allocated to them by production, that money rolls over to the next leg of their journey.

Apparently airports in the United States are the one place where begging is off-limits for cast members.

The production crew has an emergency fund for extenuating circumstances. The exact amount is unknown—some people think it's around $200—but contestants don't get their hands on that money except for in an extreme situation.

While booking travel, each team uses a credit card provided by production, and this fee is not part of their allocated money. Just think of all the frequent flyer miles the production company must have!

Despite the sometimes long flights, no contestant can travel in anything but coach. That's right, the extra leg room of business and first class are strictly off limits.

The reason behind the coach travel rule is to keep production costs down. But if a team can snag business class tickets for the price of a coach seat, then the upgrade is allowed.

The production crew strictly prohibits outside cameras to help prevent photos from being leaked to the media. However, the teams in season 26 were given selfie cameras.

Anything that would take the skill out of the competition—a.k.a. GPS devices, maps, guide books, electronics, translators—are all banned from the competition.

Production provides a sheet with important information on each country and the dos and don'ts of the culture before they arrive. "In Bangladesh, we were warned that Americans were usually not well received and to be very careful of groups," Wojnar shared on Quora.

You may think that because of the filming schedule, contestant's flights are pre-booked, but that's not the case. All flights and arrangements are made within a few days notice.

There are a lot of rules in The Amazing Race regarding purposefully derailing other competitors. One of these is that each team is only allowed to purchase one set of airline tickets at a time, to prevent people from overbooking and keeping other teams off of flights.

For every travel purchase, teams must book a reservation for themselves and their two camera operators.

If for some reason the team can't secure four tickets on a flight, then they cannot fly. The team must stay with their camera crew at all times.

It's a small world, but any of those connections you had before the race started are strictly off-limits while filming. However, the teams are allowed to interact with people they've met during the competition.

Once the race starts, team members can't separate from one another. In fact, while filming they can't stray more than 20 feet apart.

One of the most important rules of the show is that team members must stop what they're doing to read a clue. They are not allowed to be running, walking, or driving, probably to make sure the camera can capture it.

If for any reason the crew has to stop the race, whether due to an equipment issue or bathroom breaks, the contestants have to stop too. But when the crew orders a break, teams are given that time back.

Whether it's the team's fault or just plain bad luck, contestants aren't given any extra time for a transportation hiccup.

There is one loophole in the rules that says if a production-provided vehicle has an issue, and the issue was caused through no fault of the driver, the production company will provide a new vehicle.

The production crew and contestants only have 21 days to film 12 episodes. "If you factor in all the international travel and the other travel that we do to get from place to place, there's not a huge amount of time to be hanging out," host Phil Keoghan said in a Reddit thread.

The show prohibits outside communication between the contestants and their families. Even after you've been eliminated, you can't contact anyone in the outside world, as it would spoil the results of the competition.

Although it ultimately isn't up to him, Koeghan shared that he has his favorite teams—and least favorite—every season. "I'm always wanting some teams to do better than others. It breaks my heart sometimes to have to eliminate a team and then there are other times I'm not that unhappy about it at all," he wrote on Reddit.

The contestants get much needed rest during their pit stops, but these breaks are also for the crew. How long a rest period lasts is sometimes determined by if the crew needs a longer break.

With a reality show that is as on-the-go as The Amazing Race, it's impossible to plan release forms ahead of time. The show has a rule that after a contestant talks to a local (or anyone not on the show), they must hand them a release form and ask them to sign. This is built into their time and all the teams have to follow this rule.

Although being eliminated means you’re out of the running for the $1 million dollar prize, you can still leave with cash in your pockets. The first eliminated team is sent home with $1,500 and that amount increases by $500 after each elimination. If you're lucky enough to get third place, you'll receive $10,000, and the runner-ups get $25,000.

When you sign on to the show, you commit to the full 21-day filming period. Even if you're the first team eliminated, you have to stay at an undisclosed location that fans have dubbed "Sequesterville." The show doesn't reveal where these locations are to prevent spoilers, but each team is given a stipend to simply enjoy some time off.

The show goes to great lengths to keep the losers and winners of the competition a secret. So much so that sometimes they have eliminated contestants go to the airport and run around waving a clue envelope to throw people off about who's still in the competition.

Although the contestants are kept on their toes throughout the race, the producers carefully plan every step of the show and have it cleared with CBS beforehand.

The weather is one of the the only factors that can get production to change their plans and could result in a location being changed or shooting being delayed. Whichever it is, contestants have to be quick to adapt to the backup plan.