Other countries sometimes call it something other than "race," because race is considered a North American construct, but it is all the same general construct and social hierarchy.
You don't have to rely on the selective and limited observations of the people you know who lived in other countries. There is a ton of interesting literature on this that you can check out to satisfy your curiosities.
ETA: People who live in settings in America and overseas where everyone looks alike often claim that there are no racial (and similar) distinctions made between people. Well, of course if you're basing your opinions on such matters solely on what you see, you wouldn't observe anything if 95% of the people in the areas you are in look the same. Even in more diverse settings, a lot of people are waiting for some overt sign of distinctions made between people, usually a form of bigotry. "I've never seen a minority person be mistreated;" "Minorities walk around and they are barely noticed as minorities, so race doesn't matter;" and "we call people by their names and not by their races" are common responses that actually have nothing to do with the topic at hand.
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