Almost track down North European (4)
I believe the answer is:
finn
'european' is the definition.
(Finn is an example)
'almost track down north' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'track down' becomes 'find' (I've seen this before).
'north' becomes 'n' ('N' can be a synonym of 'north').
'find' with its final letter removed is 'fin'.
'fin'+'n'='FINN'
(Other definitions for finn that I've seen before include "Scandinavian such as Sibelius" , "Someone from Turku" , "adventurer in Mark Twain story" , "Sibelius, perhaps" , "Nordic" .)