23 DIY Amazing Race Games, Challenges & Task Ideas

Here is our list of fun Amazing Race games, challenges & tasks ideas.

The Amazing Race is a television show where teams compete to find clues and solve puzzles. Competitors race through exciting locations as they cooperate to complete wild challenges. Example challenges include cheese rolling, duck herding, and even yodeling competitions! These games aim to promote collaboration that utilizes each player’s particular skills and talents.

These games are similar to scavenger hunts and are examples of team building games. These exercises can be indoor team building activities or outdoor team building games. These events are the in-person equivalent of a virtual amazing race.

This list includes:

• Amazing Race games
• Amazing Race tasks & challenges
• Amazing Race ideas
• Amazing Race activities for team building
• Amazing Race challenges ideas for adults

Here we go!

List of Amazing Race games

Whether you take the fun outdoors or keep it in the workplace, here is a list of Amazing Race ideas to bring out the cooperation in your team.

1. Paper Clip Flip

Paper clip flip is a test of aim and dexterity. This game is an easy Amazing Race challenge that uses items found around the office.

Here are the rules:

1. Set a bowl or box on a table.
2. Create a series of distance markers one, three, five, and seven feet from the table.
3. Using a plastic spoon, players catapult paper clips into the bowl.
4. Each time a paper clip lands in the bowl, the player steps forward to the next marker and tries again.

Using readily available office supplies for the games will help keep the budget in check.

2. Timed Jigsaws

For timed jigsaw puzzle challenges, cut printed images into several pieces and seal them in envelopes. Then, use a one-minute timer to count down the time as players race to complete the puzzles. Be sure to mix and match pieces in separate envelopes so that teams must collaborate to finish the puzzles. Players will have a blast working together to solve both puzzles simultaneously. This exercise is also a great icebreaker activity!

3. Scavenger Hunt

As part of your Amazing Race, you can plan a classic scavenger hunt inside the workplace or outside around the campus. Each player receives a list of items to search for and a bag to carry the objects. You can include items from around the workspace if your hunt occurs indoors.

Some ideas for items to hunt include:

• coffee filters or stir sticks from the break room
• condiment packets from the cafeteria
• business cards from specific workers
• highlighter pens in specific colors
• colored paper clips
•  a packet of staples

You can also select a nearby park for an outdoor challenge and use a list of items specific to that location.

Here is a list of DIY scavenger hunt clues and scavenger hunt apps to help plan your game.

4. Coffee or Tea

Coffee or Tea is a taste-based Amazing Race challenge.

To do this activity, fill five cups filled with iced coffee or tea and ask challengers to identify each drink by sight alone. Then, blindfold the players and have them sip from the identical cups while holding their noses. Based on taste, players will guess again. Whichever team has the most accurate guesses from both rounds wins. This challenge also works well with flavored colas.

For less competitive sampling experiences, check out these lists of virtual coffee tastings and virtual tea tastings.

5. Storage Box Construction

Storage box construction is a creative challenge for a workplace with a supply of empty storage boxes.

Here are the rules:

1. Players divide into teams of two. One player is the Supervisor, and the other is the Worker.
2. Supervisor receives a paper with a simple shape drawn on it.
3. Supervisor tells Worker where to place each box to recreate the shape.
4. If Supervisor mentions the shape, then the team chooses another shape and starts again.
5. The first team to finish their shape wins.

This Amazing Race idea tests team communication skills in a fun way.

6. Paper Airplane Contest

A paper airplane contest lets challengers explore their creativity and engineering skills! The goal of the competition is to create the best paper airplane. Teammates can craft an original design or can follow instructions off the internet. Then, players take turns launching their planes as far as they can make them fly. You can create a field of various distance markers to track their success.

Pro tip: Offer bonus points for spirals, spins, and loop-the-loops!

Here is a collection of paper airplane designs for competitors.

7. Rubber Band Shoot-Out

Rubber band shoot-outs are great as either indoor or outdoor Amazing Race ideas. To prepare the exercise, print out a series of targets and create a custom point-based shooting gallery. To turn the event into a race, set a one-minute timer. Competitors use a unique rubber band shooting style to aim for the bullseye. Judges can offer bonus points for high-style shots like behind-the-back and over-the-shoulder.

8. Envelope Folding

Envelope folding asks the question, how small can you fold an envelope? During this task, competitors try to fold standard letter-sized envelopes as many times as possible. The goal is to make as compact a shape as possible. The game is more challenging than it sounds! Players can use any combination of techniques. Judges can award points for smallest envelope and highest number of folds achieved.

9. Cookie Stacking

Cookie stacking is a fun and edible Amazing Race idea for work. The exercise is great for single players or two-player teams.

Here are the rules:

1. Set a one-minute timer.
2. Competitors build towers of sandwich cookies stacked as high as possible without falling. Builders can apply their best cookie construction logic.
3. If the tower topples, then the competitor starts again.

Chocolate sandwich cookies work best for this game. However, you can also include other shapes and sizes and make the game even more challenging. Cookies are bound to break, so be sure to have enough on hand for replacements. For a fun bonus round, first-round winners build new towers with their eyes closed!

10. Quarter Bounce

Quarter Bounce tests tabletop athletic skills for single players or two-player teams. To start the game, set a cup in the center of a table. Each player gets a stack of five quarters. Then, competitors bounce their quarters off the tabletop as they try to land them in the cup. Amazing Race challenges like this game guarantee that all competitors have a fair shot at winning.

11. Blindfolded Cereal Threading

Blindfold Cereal Threading is an exercise where two-player teams build a strand of loop cereal pieces using only their hands!

To play the game:

1. Set out a bowl of 20 cereal loops and a length of dental floss or sewing thread for each team.
2. Let the team members study the location of these supplies before blindfolding both players.
3. One player holds the thread while the other guides cereal pieces onto the thread.

To add to this Amazing Race idea, have team members switch roles for a second round to see which role suits them best!

12. Forehead Cookie Dunk

Forehead Cookie Dunk requires a combination of balance and coordination. This Amazing Race challenge can happen indoors or outdoors.

Here’s how to play:

1. Place a cup filled with milk on a table for each player.
2. Station the players a distance from the table, 10 or 15 feet, if possible.
3. Players tilt their heads back, place a cookie on their foreheads and walk across the room without letting the cookie fall.
4. When players reach the table, they lift the cup and try to dunk the cookie without touching it. They can tip their heads forward, wiggle their eyebrows, or wrinkle their foreheads. Whatever works best!

Make sure to have extra cookies and milk on hand to enjoy after the challenge!

13. Color-Coded Pathfinder

Color-Coded Pathfinder challenges players to create a maze using sticky notes in various colors. To plan the game, plot out a trail for each team to follow using 15 or 20 blank note papers. You can choose a color for each group. When the game begins, teams follow the trail through the workplace and collect the sticky notes. You can add a twist by numbering the sticky notes, so the teams have a sequence to adhere to when following. No skipping a number!

14. Messenger Bag

Messenger Bag is an Amazing Race idea that tests your team’s powers of description.

To play the game:

1. Place ten random items in a sack, a backpack, or a messenger bag.
2. Separate players into teams of two.
3. Blindfold one player; this is the sender. The other player is the receiver.
4. The sender reaches into the bag, selects an item, and describes it to the receiver by touch only.
5. The receiver guesses as many items as possible in one minute.

This challenge works best with everyday items such as office supplies or household objects.

15. Snitches in Stitches

Snitches in Stitches is a game that will get the whole workplace laughing!

Here are the rules:

1. Print a familiar phrase in large font. Something like “Every dog shall have its day” or “The early bird gets the worm” are great.
2. Cut each word into a separate strip of paper.
3. Choose crew members to play the “snitches” and give each snitch one of the words.
4. Print a list of simple clues regarding each snitch. Hints like “taller than the rest,” “loves the color blue,” or “sits near a window” will work.
5. Each two-player receives the list of clues and seeks out the snitches to retrieve

the words and assemble the phrase.

This game is a fun, collaborative task for teams. The phrase can even be something related to the team’s function.

Here’s a list of phrases to get you started.

16. Coffee Pong

Coffee pong brings beer pong into the office in a safe-for-work way! Teams try to bounce three ping pong balls into a triangular arrangement of coffee cups to earn points. You can assign cups with different point values to make the competition more exciting. No coffee is needed for this Amazing Race idea. The cups can be empty to keep the play space tidy or contain plain water.

Here’s a diagram of different shapes your coffee pong cups can take.

For more inspiration, check out this list of virtual drinking games.

17. Dance Relay

Team building Amazing Race games like dance relays get your team moving in fun new ways! First, divide your team members into smaller groups of equal numbers and assign team captains for each. Next, print out a list of dance moves.

Here’s a list of dances you can include:

• The Macarena
• The Floss
• The Chicken Dance
• The Running Man
• Disco Dancing
• The Hula
• Freestyle
• The Moonwalk

Make sure there are enough moves for all the players. You can cut the list into strips, fold the slips, and put them in a cup. Each team member picks a folded dance strip. Team members form relay lines, with members separated by three or four feet. Team captains announce and perform the first dance as they make their way to the next team member. The next team member opens their strip, announces their dance, and does their best version as they move to the next member. This pattern continues until the relay finishes. If a player is not familiar with the chosen dance, then they are free to give it their best interpretation!

Here is a list of dances through the decades and a how-to guide for doing team dances.

18. Quiet Down

Quiet Down requires competitors to get their teammates to guess a word without speaking. This drill is a twist on classic charades that tests competitors’ ability to communicate without making a sound!

Here’s how to play:

1. Place folded strips of paper containing guessable items in a cup.
2. The designated “giver” chooses a word from the cup.
3. The giver mouths the word for the “guesser” to discern.
4. The first team to get three correct guesses wins.

Use movie titles, songs, or celebrity names for the list, or include whatever fun and familiar things your team might like. Be sure to encourage hand and body motions, too!

Here is a charades generator to help with prompts.

19. Photo Finish

Photo Finish turns an old-fashioned scavenger hunt into a smartphone photo quest! Create a list of 20 items, areas, and landmarks in and around your workspace to prepare the game. Competitors search for the items and snap photos of the findings. The first team to capture all 20 items, return to the starting point, and share the pictures with the judge is the winner. You can also use images to create the list by snapping your pics of elements of a larger item. Things like a number on a specific clock or a notable decoration on an employee’s desk will work. Then, send players off to scour the grounds and identify the “bigger picture.” The teams will have their work cut out for them!

Check out this list of photo scavenger hunt ideas.

20. Typing Race

Amazing Race challenge ideas for adults can feature familiar work tasks such as a timed typing race. To do the race, email your team members a link to a timed typing website and have everyone compete in one-minute typing races. Challengers send their results to a predetermined judge. The competitor who types the most words in a minute is the winner. If there is a tie, then factor in error counts to break the tie and crown the ultimate typing champion.

This typing.com site has free typing tests you can use.

21. Cup and Plate Obstacle Course

Obstacle courses using cups and plates are simple but effective DIY Amazing Race ideas for work. These challenges are easy to assemble by using basic supplies. You can create a wacky course that includes snaking paths, areas for hopping, running, and spinning, along with other imaginative challenges. It helps to use a color code among the cups and plates as a visual cue for different challenges. For example, the space between two red cups is for hopping, while the space between blue cups is for running. Feel free to add whatever twists you think will make the course as fun as possible!

22. Candy Challenge

Candy challenge is an Amazing Race idea that requires a bit of coordination to conquer. In this challenge, competitors suck air through a drinking straw to lift individual pieces of candy from one plate to another. We recommend using bite-size chocolate or fruit-flavored candies as lighter pieces that move easier. Or use heavier cinnamon or butterscotch disks to test your challenger’s breath power!

A second-tier candy challenge: competitors can blow through their straws to move pieces from one end of the plate to the other.

23. Human Basketball

Amazing Race challenges like human basketball take a bit of prep work and a few inexpensive supplies. Be sure to recruit team members to help ahead of the competition. To create the arena, tape a section of a large rubber band or terry cloth headband to a plastic drinking cup, leaving the loop open. Player One—the “basket”—wears the banded cup on their forehead. Player Two— the “shooter”—tosses ping pong balls into the cup. The team tries to make as many baskets as possible in a one-minute round. After Round One, players switch roles for another one-minute round. Whichever team scores the most points is the human basketball champion!

Conclusion

You can use Amazing Race ideas to supercharge your workplace with dynamic energy for your team building events. Some challenges tap into a wide range of abilities to revitalize the whole team! You can organize a circuit of four or five Amazing Race tasks for teams to ensure that all players get a chance to experience several events. You can also have your team members participate in assembling the events for even more opportunities to encourage teamwork.

Next, check out these lists of scavenger hunt apps and virtual game show ideas.