[Audacity 2.1.3]
I set my preferences>CD>Open With to Audacity, when I insert a CD into my Mac (10.12.6).
The disk is produced in the EU, and my CD drive tries to read but ejects without doing so. Is there something special about CDs from the EU? The disk plays in my Oppo player. I’ve copied off of countless CDs with this system.
Generally no. The CD “Red book” standard is an international standard for audio CDs (IEC 60908).
However, there are variations / extensions to the standard that are not universally supported, such as CD-Text and CD+G (karaoke disks). CD-Text does not usually cause a problem - players that don’t support it just ignore the text. CD+G disks do not play in many CD players.
And then there was the Sony BMG copy protection scandal in 2005: Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal - Wikipedia
The most common reason (by far) for CD drives failing to read an audio CD is due to the CD being defective. Standalone CD players are generally a lot better at coping with defects than computer CD drives.
Thanks Steve. I don’t see a ‘like’ button, but I like your post.
Yes indeed I suffered frome one (but fortunately only one) of those copy-protected CDs - it prevented me from loading the CD directly into my iTunes library for my iPod - I had to resort to playing it and recording it with audacity - not ideal, not optimal grrrrrrr 
WC