Rat Race is a pricing game where a contestant can can up to win three prizes by earning the right to "bet" on several of five plush toy rats set up on a race track. The pricing portion of the game has similarities to Power of 10, a game show Drew Carey hosted on CBS before taking over Price.
Gameplay
The contestant must price three items within specified ranges: a grocery item priced under $10 within $1; a small prize priced under $100 within $10; and a medium prize priced under $500 within $100. For each bid given within the correct range, the contestant chooses one of five colored mechanical rats (yellow, green, pink, orange and blue), which are positioned on a large dollar sign-shaped race track. If the contestant does not win any of the Rats, the game ends immediately. (The first time this has happened was on December 23, 2010.)
The rats are then set in motion on the track. If one of the selected rats finishes in third place, the contestant wins an additional small prize; in second, a medium-sized prize; and if a selected rat wins the race, the contestant wins a car. Contestants can win more than one prize depending upon how the chosen rats finish the race; a contestant can win all three prizes by earning three rats and having each of them come in either first, second, or third place.
While the track is designed to be the same length for all five rats, not all of the rats are guaranteed to finish; indeed, occasionally one of the rats gets stuck on the track, and the race continues to play out, just as competitors occasionally do not finish in various races in real life.
History
This game was created by Drew Carey and premiered on June 16, 2010.
Rat Race was the second pricing game to premiere under Drew's tenure as host (the first was Gas Money in Season 37).
The game got its first win after the third playing on October 15, 2010, where all three prizes were won.
On Halloween 2013 only, Rat Race was named Bat Race; the toy rats donned bat ears and wings and the cartoon rat on the game display also appeared in costume.
On May 1, 2014, two of the rats didn't make it and the last place rat ended up third.
Rat Race has had three perfect wins (all three prizes won).
Trivia
- As in Master Key and Switcheroo, the contestant only needs to win the car (not necessarily all three prizes) for the game to be officially counted as won. A win of only one or two of the smaller prizes is considered a "partial win" as far as affecting perfect or winless shows; winning none of the three announced main prizes (i.e. no rats placing third or higher) is considered a wipeout.
- Rat Race has never been the first and second pricing game to start any show because it needs time to start up. The game can be played third, fourth, fifth or sixth on the show.
Gallery
