I play for time during race for investiture (12)
I believe the answer is:
installation
'investiture' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'i play for time during race' is the wordplay.
'play for time' becomes 'stall' (I've seen this before).
'during' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'race' becomes 'nation' (both can mean a national or ethnic group).
'stall' going within 'nation' is 'nstallation'.
'i'+'nstallation'='INSTALLATION'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for installation that I've seen before include "Large gallery artwork" , "military base" , "establishment" , "The making of equipment ready for use" , "Exhibit constructed in a gallery" .)