track and field vs athletics

track and field and athletics both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
track and field	Yes	No	No	No
athletics	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, athletics is a hypernym of track and field; that is, athletics is a word with a broader meaning than track and field:

track and field: participating in athletic sports performed on a running track or on the field associated with it
athletics: an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition

Other hypernyms of track and field include sport.

track and field (noun)	athletics (noun)
participating in athletic sports performed on a running track or on the field associated with it	an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition
	participation in sports events as an extracurricular activity
	a contest between athletes