diff --git a/Lib/test/regrtest.py b/Lib/test/regrtest.py
index dca0b4e86b3..9a83fbe1d00 100755
--- a/Lib/test/regrtest.py
+++ b/Lib/test/regrtest.py
@@ -170,6 +170,7 @@ import re
 import io
 import sys
 import time
+import errno
 import traceback
 import warnings
 import unittest
@@ -1569,8 +1570,11 @@ def _make_temp_dir_for_build(TEMPDIR):
     if sysconfig.is_python_build():
         TEMPDIR = os.path.join(sysconfig.get_config_var('srcdir'), 'build')
         TEMPDIR = os.path.abspath(TEMPDIR)
-        if not os.path.exists(TEMPDIR):
+        try:
             os.mkdir(TEMPDIR)
+        except OSError as e:
+            if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
+                raise
 
     # Define a writable temp dir that will be used as cwd while running
     # the tests. The name of the dir includes the pid to allow parallel
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 8f7d5bf92b7..bbdc7cdb5a7 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -475,6 +475,8 @@ Extensions
 Tests
 -----
 
+- Fix possible "file already exists" error when running the tests in parallel.
+
 - Issue #11719: Fix message about unexpected test_msilib skip on non-Windows
   platforms. Patch by Nadeem Vawda.