Best Racers EVAH!

[Whimsy]

This is the place to discuss who you feel are the best racers ever across all of the seasons and the various reasons why. 

It's ok to disagree with other posters opinions of their top picks, but remember to stay civil and not be argumentative with your own opinions.  

[Fukui San]

For the Season 31 finale, the discussion sprung up as to who might be in the list of best racers ever, obviously spurred by Colin's victory. It's probably best to take the discussion out of the episode thread. Here's a list of some people I might nominate. It's by no means complete. Many of the latter seasons fall out of my head weirdly, but it'd be good to start the conversation.

• Colin - If the race only consisted of doing challenges he'd be the #1 pick. Also great at airport wrangling. Learned from the Team Fun recap that they found out that Nicole and Victor got on the earlier flight by posing as Victor's cousin.
• Chip (of Chip and Kim) - A challenge monster in his own right. He did find that crucial finale flight.
• Brooke (of Brooke and Claire - Man I wish she could have ever come back for another go around. I think Claire was pregnant for one returning chance). Ball of energy and enthusiasm.
• Both Nat and Kat - Simple, undramatic competence. I remember a post show interview where they revealed that before they got in a cab they would converse with the cabbie to make sure they'd be able to work with them. They didn't just hop into the first cab and yell Go! Go! Go! How many other teams do this? Dunno, but everyone should.
• Both Beauty Queens Dustin & Kandace. Honestly I don't remember the details of their runs, but I remember them being awesome and a team that had a good shot at being the first all female winning team.
• Mirna. Not a fan, but she did know how to work airports.
• Boston Rob. Not a fan, but he did dominate his first season for a large part.
• Looking at the list of winners, I seem to remember Nick and Starr & Tammy and Victor dominating their respective seasons. Some of these names completely escape me. There was a Meghan and Cheyne? Hockey playing brothers won a season? I've watched every season and yet these middle seasons just fail to stick.

[theschnauzers]

Let’s be fair. Chaka and Mirna took advantage of their knowledge about booking flight ps and manipulating gate check in crew which means their skill was less that they appeared.

And I’ll quote part of what I said in the other thread when this discussion first showed up. 

Quote

You’d have to add Eric to that list (and Jeremy in his first season) who to this day have the best average placement in a Race, ever. Eric and Jeremy had a best single double leg performance traveling from South America to Moscow to Munich without a rest period.

Another great team in their season was Chip and Reichen, whose airport skills in their season rivaled Colin during Colin’s first season.

[green]

I appreciate you doing all the math and respect same but I'm not into who finished highest in each leg averages.  Only one leg counts in the end.  All the others, don't finish last.  Like Colin & Christie said this season, their goal was to hang in the middle and not stress out and save their afterburners for the end.  Race smart. 

Also I don't care how Charla & Mirna got on flights nor what you are referring to for that matter.  I just care they did get on them and Mirna was great at that.  I mean if they smuggled themselves aboard as luggage I'm down with it.

Don't see Eric as a great Racer at all.  TAR9's cast was really really weak in every imaginable way.  But he sure got lucky on All Stars that he had no business being on to start with and where non-elim saved him.

The Clowns from TAR4 were great at airports but that actually cost them their chance of winning when their better flight was held up by fog.  Very competent Racers who seem to have been forgotten.  As were Ken & Gerard from TAR3.

Hard to judge a lot of the later Racers since TAR got dumbed down so much with little airport skills and self-navigation coming into play as well as easier, shorter legs compared to earlier seasons.

So I go with a tie between Colin for both TAR5 and this season and TAR3 Zach who dragged Flo around the globe in perhaps the worst handicap any Racer has had to overcome and won the whole thing as well.

Edited June 28, 2019 by green

[chaifan]

I give Colin massive props for this season, but I'm sorry, his horrible horrible behavior in TAR 5 takes him out of the running for me for Best Racer Ever.  I simply can't excuse his contemptible treatment of the local cab driver.  Not only was his personal behavior towards the driver inexcusable, but from a sheer strategy standpoint, that was perhaps one of the dumbest decisions a racer has ever made.  Refuse cab payment to the point where you're dealing with the police and at risk of being arrested?  Sorry, no, that is just not Best Racer to me.

As for this season, yes, he did very well and won in the end, but I don't see how he did anything more impressive than Tyler & Korey, who won many more legs than Colin & Christie. 

How about we award him Best Redemption Arc Racer instead?

[displayname]

36 minutes ago, chaifan said:

As for this season, yes, he did very well and won in the end, but I don't see how he did anything more impressive than Tyler & Korey, who won many more legs than Colin & Christie. 

They won one more leg than CC this season. And CC never even finished below 4th this season.

I don't know how to judge an overall package of a racer (right now; I'll try to think of how), but I always did think someone like Rachel (of Rachel and Dave) was one of the strongest racers ever, for knocking out that hay-stacking FF practically on her own, or even the final roadblock that she got so easily. Marie (of Tim and Marie) was also great at tasks individually (Tim was good also). Of course, Colin comes to mind for powering through so many physical tasks with ease.

Edited June 28, 2019 by displayname

[Fukui San]

Let’s put it this way: You have been cast on a special edition of TAR. You must choose as your partner any one racer in its history from the time they were in TAR. So you could choose Season 5 Colin or Season 31 Colin, for example. It’s for all the money. Who do you choose? 

[displayname]

I'd pick Zac so I could stay at home and win a million

I think both Colins would easily win a million, so to be less annoyed I'd pick season 31. Season 5 Colin is also used to a completely different game than now.

Edited June 28, 2019 by displayname

[doodlebug]

16 minutes ago, Fukui San said:

Let’s put it this way: You have been cast on a special edition of TAR. You must choose as your partner any one racer in its history from the time they were in TAR. So you could choose Season 5 Colin or Season 31 Colin, for example. It’s for all the money. Who do you choose? 

Season 31 Colin.  Awesome skills and far less prone to time consuming and unpredictable behavior.

As far as best racing team: Season 6 Kris and Jon deserve a mention.  Terrific racers and lovely people who dominated their season only to be defeated by Freddie and KKKendra in a terrible final leg in Chicago where eating a slice of pizza was an actual 'challenge' and where Kris and Jon essentially lost because they came to a railroad crossing just as the world's slowest freight train arrived.

[displayname]

2 minutes ago, doodlebug said:

Freddie and KKKendra in a terrible final leg in Chicago where eating a slice of pizza was an actual 'challenge' and where Kris and Jon essentially lost because they came to a railroad crossing just as the world's slowest freight train arrived. 

And they STILL complained about that challenge XD

[Hera]

No love for Uchenna (my all time favorite)? I wouldn't say that he and Joyce were the best team ever, but I'd certainly rank him as one of the best racers ever. He'd probably do even better in more recent seasons of the race, where self-navigation is less of a factor. By @Fukui San's "who would you want as a partner" criteria, he's my pick, hands-down: likeable, positive, athletic (potentially enough to compensate for the fact that I'm not) and I could handle the navigation and clue-reading that seemed to drag him and Joyce down.

Edited June 28, 2019 by Hera
Fixing a typo

[Fukui San]

Alternate criteria: who would you bet on in a season of all-star individual racers who are randomly paired with other all-stars before you know who they’re paired with? That way you don’t have to consider how much they’d annoy you, personally. But you should still consider how well they’d get along with random other partner. 

Uchenna is a good candidate. Also remembered the basketball playing sisters who won Unfinished Business and father and son who won All Stars 2. Dave and Connor? I remember everyone got annoyed at their cancer storyline overkill, lol. 

[Hera]

If they're randomly being paired with another all-star, then still Uchenna. Season 3's Zach is also a strong pick, since it's hard to imagine he'd end up with anyone worse than Flo. I'd also expect strong performances from Nat, Kat, and—even though I don't like either of them very much—Boston Rob and Kym.

[displayname]

Season 5 Colin and Season 31 Colin 😂😂

[meep.meep]

3 hours ago, Fukui San said:

Let’s put it this way: You have been cast on a special edition of TAR. You must choose as your partner any one racer in its history from the time they were in TAR. So you could choose Season 5 Colin or Season 31 Colin, for example. It’s for all the money. Who do you choose? 

Oswald.

[chaifan]

On 6/28/2019 at 12:41 PM, Fukui San said:

Alternate criteria: who would you bet on in a season of all-star individual racers who are randomly paired with other all-stars before you know who they’re paired with? That way you don’t have to consider how much they’d annoy you, personally. But you should still consider how well they’d get along with random other partner.

Now this would be an interesting set up for another "All Stars" season...  Invite 24 teams.  First task, before they even start racing, is that they find out only one team member will actually be racing and they have to decide which one races and which one stays home.  Then the remaining 24 racers are paired up into 12 teams.   (And, to not be total dicks about it, send the other 24 players to an all-inclusive resort for the next few weeks.)

[limecoke]

I'd have to pick Colin and Zach.  In fact, I'd love to see Zack back for another season racing with a real partner.  Maybe Victor.  They both raced with whiney partners (though Nicole was marginally more competent then Flo) but it would be fun to see them dominate an All-Star season.