Race around the ring for a drink (3)
I believe the answer is:
tot
'a drink' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'race around the ring' is the wordplay.
'race' becomes 'tt'.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the ring' becomes 'o'.
'tt' going around 'o' is 'TOT'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for tot that I've seen before include "Small baby" , "finger, possibly" , "An arithmetic babe?" , "Drop" , "Calculate" .)