The 18th season begins with 11 former teams who failed to win returning for a chance to claim the $1 million prize. The race starts in Palm Springs, Cal., and continues in Sydney, Australia, where the teams swim with sharks and receive a surprise from Phil at the pit stop.

Continuing with the clue Phil provided at the Eternal Tower in Lijiang, China, the teams head back to Kunming with the knowledge there would be a Double U-Turn ahead. A long wait for a train turned into a friendly basketball game with Flight Time and Big Easy. Pointed from the Dounan Flower Market to the Golden Horse and Jade Cock arches, the Detour awaited: teams could "Honor the Past" by arranging dolls by memory only to match a traditional Tibetan dance troupe, or "Embrace the Future" by assembling a solar water heater. Directed to the Stone Forest from the clue at the Double U-Turn, the Roadblock required safe assembly of a model of a dilophosaurus to earn the location of the Pit Stop: Green Lake Park.

Overwhelmed by a swarming sea of people on the congested streets of India, one team narrowly dodges a traffic collision while another's clumsiness threatens to spoil their chances of acing the Detour.

The race continues in Tokyo.

The race continues in Lijiang, located in the Yunnan Province of China.

The race continues in Zermatt, Switzerland

The race continues in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.

The final four teams race through Rio de Janeiro before heading to the finish line in Miami as the season concludes.

The seven remaining teams depart from the Fountain of Joy in Kolkata, India for the seventh leg of the race.

Confronted by a psychological Detour, teams try to avoid making a Freudian slip in the slick streets of Austria, and a hefty meal proves to be too big for some teams' stomachs

The Amazing Race

The final four teams race through Rio de Janeiro before heading to the finish line in Miami as the season concludes.