For the purposes of gaining a licence, cross country flight is regarded as a flight from A to B or a flight from A to A involving one or more preplanned turning points. Thats why it is recommended you list turning points in the log for flights claimed for this purpose. Once you have a licence, there really is no formal definition of a cross country flight.
Not disagreeing but in my first lesson we went well beyond 3nm, but it is not listed as such and not sure I can see where I would list turning points in my log book.
Apologies have one entry so far, second weather permitting coming thursday.