The second earl crashed out of the race! (6)
I believe the answer is:
latter
'the second' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'earl crashed out of the race' is the wordplay.
'crashed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'out of' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters on the outside of others).
'the race' becomes 'tt'.
'earl' anagrammed gives 'laer'.
'laer' going around 'tt' is 'LATTER'.
(Other definitions for latter that I've seen before include "Second of two choices" , "Second-mentioned of two" , "Nearer the end" , "Last of those mentioned" , "The one just mentioned" .)