Widespread rise of motor racing on mountain (6)
I believe the answer is:
massif
'mountain' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both natural objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'widespread rise of motor racing on' is the wordplay.
'widespread' becomes 'mass' (as in mass media).
'rise of' says the letters should be written backwards (in a down clue, letters go up).
'motor racing' becomes 'fi' (FI resembles F1, Formula 1).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'fi' in reverse letter order is 'if'.
'mass'+'if'='MASSIF'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for massif that I've seen before include "Compact mountainous area" , "Mountainous block" , "Highland area?" , "Central mountain mass" , "IMF ass found on mountainous plateau" .)