A potato race is a running contest, where the winner is the first who collects in a basket or other receptacle a number of potatoes, usually eight, placed, as a rule two yards apart, along a straight line, and then crosses a finish line five or ten yards farther on.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.