Well, this point depends on if your VCR is a professional device or not. Anyway, you can use a VHS Cleaner in order to clean the heads, etc. Check any of these tools for Cleaning:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=VHS+Cleaner
If you don’t have any VCR, I recommend you to look at any local dealer, used or second hand shop. Sometimes it’s better in case you have any trouble with the VCR instead return any device you’ve purchased via e-bay, AliExpress or something like that. Apart from the VCR (you’ll find a decent one starting from ± $50), I’m pretty sure you should need any of these tools:
Scart converter
https://www.amazon.com/Haokiang-Scart-Female-Adapter-Converter/dp/B07VGVZGJT/
https://www.amazon.com/Converter-Software-Transfer-Camcorder-Digitizer/dp/B07Q2KH2PH/
Last April (while the lockdown where I live) I’ve successfully converted some old VHS tapes to DVD using my FullHD Pinnacle USB dongle with GNU/Linux support (I think any Kernel starting from 2.4 have support for this device) and OBS Studio program (since the Pinnacle Studio app is intended for Windows environment only).
In the VCR, I plugged the Scart/RCA converter (I mention before) in order to output the video and audio signal to the Pinnacle Input. After some testings about the better quality in OBS, I ended recording the footage in FullHD MKV format and edited later in Shotcut, but Openshot, Olive and Blender works properly editing MKV files (Cinelerra doesn’t work for me if I use higher FPS such as videos in Slo-mo). You can use MKV with 4K support too, but the end file is too big and encoding in 4K doesn’t mean you have a better image in that case (VHS is limited to SD resolution or HD in privileged devices)
In order to convert the final video in Shotcut, use “Export → DVD preset ⇾ Export File” or the options you find in your favorite NLE. Remember there have some restrictions in DVD video files. Please check this info in the Wikipedia. Later you can use DVDStyler, OpenDVD Producer, DevedeNG (from a friend of mine!), ManDVD, BombonoDVD or any other tool for titling, menu, etc.
Hope that helps!
Benny.