Race madly round present-day covered precinct (6)
I believe the answer is:
arcade
'race madly round present-day covered precinct' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'race madly round present-day' is the wordplay.
'madly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'round' indicates putting letters inside.
'present day' becomes 'AD' (as opposed to BC).
'race' is an anagram of 'arce'.
'arce' going around 'ad' is 'ARCADE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for arcade that I've seen before include "Covered (shopping) walk" , "Gallery" , "Covered passageway with shops and stalls" , "games area?" , "Covered passage of e.g. shops" .)