Crossword Genius

Egotist from South America thus raced back (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

narcissus

'egotist' is the definition.
(the mythical Narcissus was famously self-absorbed)

'south america thus raced back' is the wordplay.
'south america' becomes 'sus' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'thus' becomes 'sic' ('thus' in Latin).
'raced' becomes 'ran' ('run' can be a synonym of 'race').
'back' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'sus'+'sic'+'ran'='sussicran'
'sussicran' written backwards gives 'NARCISSUS'.

'from' is the link.

(Other definitions for narcissus that I've seen before include "Garden flower - youth of Greek mythology" , "Flower like daffodil" , "Beautiful fellow" , "Legendary egotist" , "Mythical egotist" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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