The season they’re showing right now had a guy who said he learned to drive stick about 2 weeks before coming on the show. Pretty sure he didn’t actually practice all that much but he did seem to get it eventually. I’m always surprised that the contestants don’t bother to pick up this skill in advance. I don’t think there have been a lot of episodes in the most recent seasons with manual cars so I figured European countries were moving away from manual cars like here in the US. My husband has said for years that we should try to be on the show because I drive a manual car. No thank you!! I’m too old for that crap.