Damaged car in tense passing situation (10)

I believe the answer is:

transience

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'passing situation' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.

'damaged car in tense' is the wordplay.
'damaged' indicates an anagram.
'car'+'in'+'tense'='carintense'
'carintense' is an anagram of 'TRANSIENCE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for transience that I've seen before include "Ephemerality" , "Impermanence" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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