When I pause my recording and then go back to continue, audacity creates a new track which plays over what I have previously recorded? How do I correct that?
If you pause your recording, either with the Pause button or “P” on your keyboard, then you can simply click the Pause button again or press “P” again to un-pause.
If you have “Stopped” the recording (Stop button or spacebar), then to resume recording on the same track, you need to “Append Record” by either selecting this option from the Transport menu, or Shift + Record button, or Shift + R.