He was a high-flyer who crashed (6)
I believe the answer is:
icarus
'a high-flyer who crashed' is the definition.
'icarus' can be an answer for 'a high-flyer' (I've seen this before). I'm unsure of the remainder of the definition.
'he' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'he' could be 'car' and 'car' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'was' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for icarus that I've seen before include "who made unwise flight?" , "Son of Daedalus whose wings melted fatally" , "Legendary character" , "High-flyer in Greek mythology" , "Ancient Greek who flew too close to the sun" .)