Cream burning in central Greece (5)
I believe the answer is:
elite
'cream' is the definition.
(as in the cream of the crop)
'burning in central greece' is the wordplay.
'burning' becomes 'lit' (I've seen this before).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'central' indicates the central letters.
The middle of 'greece' is 'ee'.
'lit' inserted inside 'ee' is 'ELITE'.
(Other definitions for elite that I've seen before include "Group enjoying superior status" , "A privileged group in society" , "Selected as the best" , "Pick of the bunch" , "Select body, cream" .)