Exotic breaks in North American state (8)
I believe the answer is:
nebraska
'state' is the definition.
(Nebraska is an example)
'exotic breaks in north american' is the wordplay.
'exotic' indicates anagramming the letters.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'north american' becomes 'na'.
'breaks' anagrammed gives 'ebrask'.
'ebrask' inserted inside 'na' is 'NEBRASKA'.
(Other definitions for nebraska that I've seen before include "location of Lincoln" , "US Midwest state" , "State of central USA" , "State of the western US" , "Wading bird" .)