The Ultimate Price is Right Strategy Guide: Rat Race

Rat Race

Rules

3 main prizes are shown, usually including a car. Then 3 smaller prizes are shown. The contestant must guess the first prize to within $1 (above or below), the second prize to within $10 (above or below), and the third prize to within $100 (above or below). For each of those they get correct, they get to choose a mechanical rat out of the five on the track. Those rats then are released. If the contestant chose the rat that finished first, they win the largest main prize (again, usually the car); they chose the rat that finished second, they get the middle prize, and if they chose the rat the finished in third, they get the third prize.

Random fact

They once twice* played this game for cash instead of a car. You can see how the contestant did in one of those playings here:

* Thanks to TPIRfan#9821 at golden-road.net for the correction!

Win-loss record (seasons 38-47): 40-68 (37.04%)

Which lane contained the winning rat? (seasons 38-47)

Note: the following list only counts playings where the race was actually run.

• Lane #1 (the left most lane): 34 playings (32.38%)
• Lane #2: 18 playings (17.14%)
• Lane #3: 17 playings (16.19%)
• Lane #4: 15 playings (14.29%)
• Lane #5 (the right most lane): 21 playings (20.00%)

Which rat won? (seasons 38-47)

Note: the following list only counts playings where the race was actually run.

• Blue: 17 playings (16.19%)
• Green: 20 playings (19.05%)
• Orange: 26 playings (24.76%)
• Pink: 23 playings (21.90%)
• Yellow: 19 playings (18.10%)

What were the values of each of the prizes? (seasons 44*-47)

* I'm choosing season 44 to start with because before that season, they sometimes had second prizes worth less than $30.

• First prize: $1.49-$7.99
• Second prize: $40-$90
• Third prize: $110-$300

Strategy

Part 1: Prize pricing

• First prize: For the first prize, your guess should be between $2.49 and $6.99, inclusive. Of course it's possible they could expand the range of prices of the prize, but the $7.99 item they used in season 47 was a full $1 more than any other first prize they had ever used, so I doubt they'll expand much further any time soon. Beyond that range, know the price.
• Second prize: Your guess should be between $50 and $80 inclusive. Beyond that, know the price.
• Third prize: Guess $200. They have never used a third prize that was strictly less than $100 or strictly more than $300. 

Part 2: Which rats to pick

Pick the endpoints! As you can see, no color has a huge advantage, but one lane does. For whatever reason, the left most lane wins significantly more often than any other lane, so you should choose whatever rat is there. Then go for the right most lane. If you were good enough at pricing to have a third rat, choose your lucky color from the three rats in the middle.