Brainstorm: Aligning the player to a predefined track

So imagine I have an extruded oval (or rounded rectangle), with a "track" extending out from the bottom. I want to create a situation where the player is confined to the track (on the dotted lines). The only direction that the player can go is back and forth on that track. So in a way it's a 2D game because the player can only move in X and Y, except the X dimension is wrapped around to create a loop. The camera would be a typical side-scrolling camera, so it would also need to stay oriented to the player as the player rotates while moving around the track, facing inward at the player.

I'm trying to figure out how to get started on this. It seems to me that aligning the player and camera to the surface normal of the extruded shape and keeping them at a consistent distance from it might be the best way to get started.

Any better ideas?