Race Across the World 2026: Meet the teams hoping to win this year's £20,000 cash prize
The new teams are set and raring to goRace Across the World will see five new teams traverse across two continents this year as they go head-to-head for the £20,000 prize.
The contestants will work in their pairs as they navigate a gruelling 12,000km route across Europe and Asia.
Just like in previous series, the teams will be stripped of their phones before they start.
They will also have a very limited cash budget as they make their mammoth journey.
Winning Race Across the World all comes down to careful budgeting, planning and relying on strangers for help.
Here’s the 2026 teams who will be gracing our screens over the next few weeks. Let’s go!
Race Across the World 2026 teams: Friends Jo and Kush
Jo and Kush are childhood best friends. Jo, 19, is currently studying at college. His pal Kush is also 19 and is in his gap year.
Given the pair still live at home with their mums in Liverpool, Race Across the World is their first ever taste of freedom.
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Jo and Kush believe their age will actually work in their favour. Ahead of the show, Kush said: “I think that being young, we will kind of hopefully be brushed over like we don’t have the experience, and then we can secretly work in silence and take over.”
The friends have paid close attention to previous series of RATW and what the teams packed. They have made sure they have a white board and pens, so they’re able to draw things like buses to make themselves understood.
Jo and Kush aren’t wildly thrilled about giving up their phones. In fact, Kush even describes going without their devices as a “shock”.
“It’s a shock,” he said. “It’s such an easy comfort to open your phone and when I was travelling, I did a lot of bookings through my phone so I think it will be a really big challenge to not be able to pull up Google Maps and look for directions, book transport, find out where the train is or call my mum.”
Katie and Harrison: Brother and sister
Brother and sister duo, Katie and Harrison, are hoping to follow in the footsteps of Celebrity Race Across The World winners, Roman and Harleymoon Kemp.
Harrison, a finance assistant, is the older brother at 23, while account manager Katie is 21. The siblings are from Manchester and, like Roman and Harleymoon, say their “bond” will see them through.
Harrison said: “I think our bond and relationship is a strength. I think we’ll be okay, even if one of us gets really down, or we get annoyed with each other, we know we’ll come back from that.”
They have assigned themselves specific roles. Harrison is on “money control”, while Katie is on “snack control”. This is because Harrison is apparently tight but eats like a horse!
Last year, Katie and Harrison holidayed together in Turkey. That didn’t go according to plan, but they got through it. The siblings hope the experience proves they can cope with adversity abroad.
“We spent a week in an all-inclusive hotel, and the air conditioning was spitting out at us in the night, and then the toilet flooded,” Katie said “We still haven’t had a refund or anything.”
Molly and Andrew: Father and daughter
Molly has one goal in mind. She hopes their time together on Race Across the World will “prove” to her dad Andrew that she is more independent than he thinks.
Molly is a 23-year-old junior doctor. Andrew, 54, is a geography teacher (which should come in handy!). The father and daughter are from Northern Ireland.
The pair are less prepared than others, although they have packed a calculator and a pen and paper. Molly described her strength as “being able to talk to anyone”.
But Andrew joked: “Her weakness is that she never shuts up!”
Molly and Andrew aren’t too bothered by giving up their mobile phones. Andrew explained: “We live in an area where there’s no phone signal, so at times we have no signal or very little signal.
“So having no phone with me is not too much of an issue because it’s never stuck to me. The biggest bug bear my wife has with me is that I don’t bring it enough, so the phone is not an issue.”
Andrew says he is worried about Molly’s “snoring”. Molly, meanwhile, said: “[Daddy] is a boy that’s lived with girls his entire life, and he still doesn’t understand that we like to wash our hair and put on make-up.”
Cousins Puja and Roshni
Puja and Roshni are looking forward to jetting aboard and spreading their wings after spending their 20s focused on their careers. Puja, 31, is a doctor, while 32-year-old Roshni works as a software engineer. They are both from London.
Puja explained: “During the time I applied, I had hit a career block, and I decided that if I was hitting a career block, I would do something that I wanted to do for a very long time and so decided to apply for the race.”
Roshni has some experience, having travelled a little bit in Cuba. But she’s worried a lack of home cooking will make her feel homesick.
Puja and Roshni lived one street away from each other growing up, so they are used to spending so much time together. But Roshni admits she does have a tendency to “panic” when things go wrong.
“I panic a lot,” Roshni said. “If something’s not going the way I want it to it is just instant panic. So, even now, if something happened, or if a crisis happened, I would need to have a moment to freak out before I could do anything.”
Roshni is also a clean freak. Puja revealed: “She’s very hygienic and outside bags shouldn’t go on the bed.
“Everyone has, their thing and it’s fairly easy to live with, but I’m someone that will come home and throw my clothes on the bed and put my bag on the bed, so I’m actively trying to be careful.”
In-laws Mark and Margo: How are they related?
Mark and Margo are an unlikely duo that hasn’t been seen on Race Across the World before. The pair are brother and sister-in-law.
Mark, a 66-year-old retired architect, was married to Margo’s big sister Julia. When Julia fell ill, the pair jointly cared for her. Tragically, she has now died.
Mark lives in London and Margo, a 59-year-old hypnotherapist, is from Liverpool. They decided to take part in the BBC show following Julia’s death.
“We’ve been through this experience with losing my big sister and him losing his wife,” Margo explained. “It seemed like a celebratory thing that we could do together. This was a new journey that could be exciting and like a renewal.”
Held at knifepoint
Margot has experience backpacking. In fact, she even ended up in danger while travelling through Costa Rica when she was younger.
She said: “Someone tried to mug me at knife point. I was told not to go out after nine o’clock and I was out at 10 o’clock, so I did what I was told not to do. It was not Costa Rica’s fault; I was warned about that.”
For the race, Margot has packed a cashmere hoodie given to her by Julia.
Mark, meanwhile, said of RATW: “It’s a continuation of journeys of caring for Julia. It’s the next step.
“Margot would come for four or five days and would sit with Julia all day in hospital, which was something I couldn’t do – I could not sit down. She comforted Julia.
“I would do all the practical things of taking the blood transfusions, all the appointments, doing the medication, and making sure that she was looked after.
“That brought us together and this is just a continuation of that. We became friends and realised that we could work together.”
Read more: When is BBC’s Race Across the World 2026 on and what is this year’s route?
