Drunkard reversing after gold cars (5)
I believe the answer is:
autos
'cars' is the definition.
('auto' can be a synonym of 'car')
'drunkard reversing after gold' is the wordplay.
'drunkard' becomes 'sot' ('sot' can be a synonym of 'drunkard').
'reversing' says the letters should be written backwards.
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'gold' becomes 'au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold).
'sot' reversed gives 'tos'.
'tos' after 'au' is 'AUTOS'.
(Other definitions for autos that I've seen before include "Religious dramas" , "Freeway traffic" , "Cars" .)