Cue the adrenaline rush! Freestyle motocross legend Carey Hart is no stranger to living life on the edge, so when the chance to join the cast of FOX’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test presented itself, the racer knew it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass on.

“I wanted to challenge myself,” Carey, 49, told In Touch exclusively after his shock exit from the show on Wednesday, January 29. “It’s like survival of the fittest, and I just wanted to see how I could hold up and stack up against everybody that was there” — even if his singer-songwriter wife, Pink, wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea.

“Her initial reaction was ‘you’re pretty much an idiot. You can’t let things like this go,’” he admits. “But, at the same time too, she completely supported it. She understands that though I do still get to ride freestyle motocross and compete in racing a little bit, I have to kind of play in this pond that keeps me safe.”

Despite breaking 80 bones throughout his motocross career, Carey was ready for the extreme conditions and physical endurance required to compete on the show.

“I kind of joke I have a pretty high suffer rate,” he said with a laugh. “I still train pretty hard at this point in my life … so, [I went in with the] mindset that I’m going to immerse myself, I’m going to take it minute by minute, challenge by challenge … [and] I was very thankful that I made it as far as I did.”

Even his resilience was pushed to the limit when it came to the infamous tear gas challenge, Carey tells In Touch. “In a weird way, I was really looking forward to [it] because I felt pretty confident going into pretty much any of the physical elements, but the tear gas [challenge] was all mental,” he admits. “Luckily, I had an amazing partner in Kyla [Pratt] … but it was absolutely brutal — like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”

After surviving numerous grueling tasks, Carey was ultimately forced to medically withdraw from the show.

Describing his exit as “bittersweet,” he reflects, “I made it to about 48 hours or so from the end of the show so I really wanted to stand on that platform and shake all the DS’ hands.” Carey then quipped, “I’m not gonna lie, I really enjoyed getting back to the hotel and taking a hot shower, eating normal food, and having a beer.”

Looking back, he says the most rewarding part has been the friendships formed by bonding with fellow participants like former NFL stars Golden Tate and Cam Newton as well as reality TV personality Brody Jenner. “I’m a simple dad that builds motorcycles and chases my wife around the world so to get to meet these massive, different walks of life people and create these friendships through this wild experience, is definitely a highlight I’m going to take away,” Carey tells In Touch.

And the lessons he’s learned from Special Forces? The dad of two, who shares kids Willow, 13, and Jameson, 8, with Pink, 45, has a newfound perspective on life. “We all can get distracted with life stressors,” he shares. “So going through this experience, it definitely kind of recalibrates your life as to what’s important, what’s not important, and what to focus on. Don’t sweat the small crap, move through it, and be in the moment.”

Catch new episodes of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.