The car crashed in the old country (6)
I believe the answer is:
thrace
'old country' is the definition.
(historical south-eastern European country)
'the car crashed in' is the wordplay.
'crashed' is an anagram indicator.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'car' anagrammed gives 'rac'.
'the' going around 'rac' is 'THRACE'.
'the' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for thrace that I've seen before include "ancient land" , "The car (anag.); historical region" , "Balkan area" , "Ancient area around Bulgaria" , "Historic region of SE Europe" .)