It's wrong in a race to use the whip (8)
I believe the answer is:
chastise
'the whip' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'it's wrong in a race' is the wordplay.
'wrong' indicates anagramming the letters.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'a race' becomes 'chase' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'its' with letters rearranged gives 'tis'.
'tis' going into 'chase' is 'CHASTISE'.
'to use' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for chastise that I've seen before include "discipline" , "Castigate or punish" , "Berate" , "Scold severely" , "Punished severely" .)