Girl crosses road to reach the country (6)
I believe the answer is:
jordan
'the country' is the definition.
(Jordan is an example)
'girl crosses road' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'joan' ().
'crosses' is an insertion indicator.
'road' becomes 'rd' (abbreviation for road).
'joan' enclosing 'rd' is 'JORDAN'.
'to reach' is the link.
(Other definitions for jordan that I've seen before include "Middle East kingdom" , "Sacred river to east of Israel" , "Biblical river or Middle East country" , "Arab kingdom" , "Country - Michael of basketball - model from Brighton" .)