Crossword Genius

Ridiculous if car breaks down west of California (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

farcical

'ridiculous' is the definition.
(I know that ridiculous can be written as farcical)

'if car breaks down west of california' is the wordplay.
'breaks down' indicates an anagram.
'west of' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'california' becomes 'cal' (short for California).
'if'+'car'='ifcar'
'ifcar' is an anagram of 'farci'.
'farci'+'cal'='FARCICAL'

(Other definitions for farcical that I've seen before include "Absurd, quite ridiculous" , "Completely ludicrous." , "Quite ridiculous, perhaps in play" , "Ridiculous as in broad comedy" , "Utterly ridiculous like bad comedy" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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