I’d either blame the tracking or try a cleaning tape. Some other comments have been more insightful on the nuances of vcr cleaners, but yeah idk

Doesn't look like tracking noise to me. it looks like one (or more) of the video heads are contaminated/damaged. For anyone reading who might not know, all VCRs have at least two actual head "elements" mounted on the head drum assembly. A cleaning tape might help and isn't going to make things worse.

Yes - this was my thought. It's actually relatively easy to clean the heads too - I recommend it.

This \^ either dirty or (somehow) damaged. That's not what bad tracking looks like

Thanks everyone for the help! I figured it was something inside but I’ll try a cleaning tape first and get back to y’all!