Matt with Audacity you get out what you put in no more no less.
If you want to add something you can. If you want to remove something you can. If you want to layer as in record several tracks then you can. If you want to record just one track you can.
All this talk about latency and terrible players and .wav and prefeering tape recorders and recording from one computer to another is nonesense.
You need to learn the basics and then you might know what you are talking about.