A racetrack and a holding procedure, whilst similar, are not quite the same thing.
A racetrack is a reversal procedure like a base turn(teardrop) or procedure turn, and normally forms part of the initial approach. Reversal procedure design is limited, amongst other factors, by the maximum rate of descent allowed on both the outbound and inbound legs. The nice thing about racetracks is that you can go round them more than once, and in some cases they are the only way to lose height if the procedure commencement altitude is very high.