off the track

off (the) track

1. Inaccurate, irrelevant, or unrelated. I appreciate your concerns, but I think they're a bit off track.
2. Straying from the central topic, issue, or subject at hand. Sorry, I started talking about surfing and got off the track. You're off the track again, Mom. Try to finish the story.
3. Not faithful to or distracted from a central principle, goal, mission, etc. Somewhere along the lines, our organization got off track from what we have always striven to achieve. We are going to fix that, starting now. We wanted to have the product released by the early spring, but we got off track with a number of technical issues.
See also: off, track
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

off the track

 
1. Go to off the (beaten) track.
2. Fig. [of comments] irrelevant and immaterial. I'm afraid you're off the track, John. Try again. I'm sorry. I was thinking about dinner, and I got off the track.
See also: off, track
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

off the track

Away from one's objective, train of thought, or a sequence of events, It is often put as get or put or throw off the track , as in Your question has gotten me off the track, or The interruption threw Mom off the track and she forgot what she'd already put into the stew . This term comes from railroading, where it means "derailed." Its figurative use was first recorded in 1875.
See also: off, track
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

off the track

mod. not on a productive course; following the wrong lead. You are off the track just a little. Let me help you.
See also: off, track
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • off (the) track
  • off beam
  • off the beam
  • on the beam
  • not have anything to do with (someone or something)
  • off at a tangent
  • be nothing to do with (someone or something)
  • be/have nothing to do with somebody/something
  • have nothing to do with
  • have nothing to do with (someone or something)
References in classic literature
He therefore missed seeing that Adam branched off the track and returned to the high road.
Lair of the White Worm
Having advanced six paces and strayed off the track into the snow, Pierre looked down at his feet, then quickly glanced at Dolokhov and, bending his finger as he had been shown, fired.
War and Peace
It was necessary that they should be thrown off the track, and that I should win to California.
The Iron Heel
He asked me which way I was going, and, when I told him, he said I should save seven miles, and get a good hour earlier to Yea, by striking off the track and making for a peak that we could see through the trees, and following a creek that I should see from the peak.
beard--the riderless horse and the bloody saddle--the deliberate misdirection that had put me off the track and out of the way--and now the missing manager and the report of bushrangers at this end.
The Amateur Cracksman
'You know we're off the track again!' said Vasili Andreevich.
Master and Man
Had the engine run off the track,--a catastrophe, it is whispered, by no means unprecedented,--the bottomless pit, if there be any such place, would undoubtedly have received us.
Mosses From An Old Manse and other stories
They know it and tell it as a parrot would--and if you interrupt, and throw them off the track, they have to go back and begin over again.
The Innocents Abroad
Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails.
Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedience
It was not that they distinguished themselves as a family by any particular originality, or that their excursions off the track led to any breach of the proprieties.
The Idiot
And she would go back to the chase of it--and no sooner be fairly started than her chariot would be thrown off the track, so to speak, by the stupidity of those thrice accursed musicians.
Jungle
Rail communications to and from Rajshahi were cut off on Thursday following an oil freight train went off the track.
Rajshahi region's rail communications cut off
According to police sources, the explosion damaged the railway track and four bogies of the train went off the track.
Blast on railway track kills two in Naseerabad
"Dai is a truly great athlete both on and off the track and is a fantastic choice to lead what is our biggest team of the modern era.
Greene gets the nod [...]; ATHLETICS
Due to the crash, gearbox blocked and marshals failed to roll the car off the track.
Red Bull Racing pilot crashes into wall during practice session in Baku