In the upcoming 2.1.3 (hopefully to be released soon) you can opt for a pinned play/record head which keeps the head in the centre of the waveform window and moves the waveform.
What you will get to see is a new little icon at the left of the Timeline. By default taht is a downward pointing green triangle which will give current normal playback ad recording - click on that and iy will switch to a thumb-tack/drawing-pin icon and pin the head in the centre.
See this preview from the 2.1.3 alpha Manual:
http://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Timeline#pinnedWC