| 100% | NEWYORKMARATHON | 15 | Event held on the first Sunday in November, and whose path is recreated in this puzzle |
| 41% | KENTUCKYDERBY | 13 | First leg of the Triple Crown, whose levels of success can be found in this puzzle's circled letters |
| 39% | AMBULANCE | 9 | Vehicle whose sound is imitated by the first three Across entries in this puzzle |
| 38% | DONUT | 5 | Treat whose varieties appear at the starts of four long answers and are represented a dozen times in this puzzle |
| 37% | TARA | 4 | Author Westover whose memoir is spelled out in the first letters of this puzzle's eight circled schools |
| 37% | BACKPACK | 8 | Travel the world with one bag, and what can be found in this puzzle's circled letters? |
| 37% | THREE | 5 | First digit of this puzzle's subject, whose next four digits are the number of rows and then columns of the grid |
| 37% | RACE | 4 | The next one of these will start in Paris on September 5th, 2021 and end (hopefully) on November 16th, 2021 at Dakar, Senegal |
| 36% | YOUREMUTED | 10 | Comment about the silence on Zoom ... and what's spelled out by the sounds that have been removed from the starts of 10 phrases in this puzzle |
| 36% | SEAN | 4 | Connery, whose speaking style is played on in this puzzle |
| 36% | TRICKORTREAT | 12 | What is found divided at the starts and ends of nine answers in this puzzle |
| 36% | CARBONFOOTPRINT | 15 | Global warming calculation whose shape is suggested by connecting 14 squares in this puzzle in a closed loop based on the appropriate 23-Across |
| 35% | DISUNION | 8 | State of division, and what the first letters of the states divided across black squares in this puzzle spell out |
| 35% | TOTALLUNARECLIPSE | 17 | Event on Dec. 21, 2010, viewable in North and South America, depicted visually in this puzzle |
| 35% | ABE | 3 | Nickname of the man (born 2/12/1809) who gave the address at 18-Across, issued the 28-Across/45-Across, was the first elected president of the 60-Across Party, and whose name can be found in this puzzle's main diagonal |
| 35% | SALESPROMOTIONS | 15 | Marketing strategies, and what the mascots in this puzzle have all been given? |
| 34% | TINATURNER | 10 | "The Best" singer, and what this puzzle is, in the circles |
| 34% | PIE | 3 | "American ___," teen film starring Jason Biggs ... and a traditional Thanksgiving dessert whose ingredients can be found in this puzzle |
| 34% | VCR | 3 | The first commercial one of these was introduced by Ampex in 1956 and cost roughly $50,000 |
| 34% | STATELINES | 10 | Borders represented four times in this puzzle — both in the grid and on a map |
| 34% | FRANKENSTEIN | 12 | Character whose creation is making the 10 complaints in this puzzle |
| 34% | LONGWINDED | 10 | Verbose, and what the circled letters in this puzzle literally are? |
| 34% | VICTORFLEMING | 13 | Director of the eight starred films in this puzzle, who was born on 2/23/1889 |
| 34% | MAKINGAFACE | 11 | Smirking, scowling, or smiling, and what the sets of circled letters in this puzzle are doing? |
| 34% | ATOMICPILE | 10 | The first one of these was built by Fermi and his team in 1942 |
| 34% | GOREVIDALNOVELS | 15 | What the first words of eight long answers in this puzzle are |
| 34% | WAITING | 7 | On hold ... or what the seven rows of black squares in this puzzle's grid spell in Morse code |
| 34% | TINSMITH | 8 | Artisan whose work is featured in this puzzle? |
| 34% | LEAVENED | 8 | Unlike bread on Passover, and like four of the five sets of circled letters in this puzzle |
| 33% | ZZTOP | 5 | Rock band whose name is suggested by the first row of this puzzle |