Sound of hotrod crashing into animal (8)
I believe the answer is:
orthodox
'sound' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'hotrod crashing into animal' is the wordplay.
'crashing' indicates anagramming the letters.
'into' is an insertion indicator.
'animal' becomes 'ox' (I've seen this in other clues).
'hotrod' is an anagram of 'rthodo'.
'rthodo' put inside 'ox' is 'ORTHODOX'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for orthodox that I've seen before include "Regular - conventional" , "Conforming with established opinions" , "belonging to the Eastern Church" , "By the book" , "Conventional, normal" .)