Nation accepts popular playwright (6)
I believe the answer is:
racine
'playwright' is the definition.
(Racine is an example)
'nation accepts popular' is the wordplay.
'nation' becomes 'race' (I've seen this before).
'accepts' is an insertion indicator.
'popular' becomes 'in'.
'race' placed around 'in' is 'RACINE'.
(Other definitions for racine that I've seen before include "in Wisconsin" , "French writer" , "French dramatist, author of Phedre, d. 1699" .)