How are Beach City, New York, Albuquerque, and Seattle different from each other? Same language, same country, same currency, same species of human (perhaps one, maybe two exceptions living in the former). And yet, someone from one of those places is going to stick out like a sore thumb in the others. Or, any one of those locations is going to look very different to a denizen of the others.
Invent some small differences - say, a dozen things that are unique to each Fictional Country. Food, popular fashion, accent, approach to life, preparedness, vehicle of choice, etc. That's a minimum of 70 factoids, so get to work.
(Also, start watching travelogues and look for expected things that are missing as much as are there.)

In my Worldbuilding, I have a Multiverse (established as part of my Continuity Reboot of my world, which makes the old worldbuilding non-canon.
Within one of the Alternate Universe universes (Earth-86, so called for the year of my birth), I have been thinking of adding a Fictional Country.
I'm keeping the landmass and area in sq.km the same, but want to give it a different Backstory and not make it a Captain Ersatz or Expy of any Real Life country.
So far, I've concentrated on two landmasses - Italy (where I've been on vacation sometimes), and South Africa (which probably won't be called South Africa in this setting, or have the Backstory that the Real Life one has).
The setting, aside from multiversal travel, is modern-world, starting in 1986, and continuing to now, going in Anachronic Order.
The multiversal travel, and concept of The Multiverse, came from what I'd seen on The Flash (2014), although for now, the Alternate Universes don't interact with each other (yet), as the stories are largely standalone, self-contained stories. (with a Slice of Life or No Antagonist feel to them). This could be seen as Early-Installment Weirdness, but the world is slowly being developed.
As it is, there's only six major characters, five supporting characters, so there isn't Loads And Loads Of Characters to work with. One is a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Shenae Grimes-Beech (in terms of looks, not Backstory or anything else... would that be an Expy then?)
I'd appreciate any advice on how to make a Fictional Country interesting without resorting to too many cliches or racial stereotypes.
edited 16th Apr '18 6:02:47 AM by Merseyuser1