French dramatist elected to enter competition (6)
I believe the answer is:
racine
'french dramatist' is the definition.
(Jean Racine)
'elected to enter competition' is the wordplay.
'elected' becomes 'in'.
'to enter' is an insertion indicator.
'competition' becomes 'race' (race is a kind of competition**).
'in' put within 'race' is 'RACINE'.
(Other definitions for racine that I've seen before include "French dramatist, author of Phedre, d. 1699" , "in Wisconsin" , "French writer" .)