Given the ultimate drive, tries reaching England's borders (7)

I believe the answer is:

hearsed

'given the ultimate drive' is the definition.
(driven in a hearse after dying)

'tries reaching england's borders' is the wordplay.
'tries' becomes 'hears' ('hear' can be a synonym of 'try').
'reaching' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'england's borders' becomes 'ed' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'hears'+'ed'='HEARSED'

(Another definition for hearsed that I've seen is " Prepared for funeral".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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