I missed this when you posted but will jump in now.

The best price/performance bet is the car you already own. I would suggest upgrading the wheels/tires first. Remember a regular Civic is designed to haul people/stuff in a relatively comfortable way. The stock tire sizes are selected with this in mind. Performance tires with different size/width ratios will perform better at the expense of comfort. After that you can think about different springs/shocks/roll bars.

Engine upgrades depend on what engine your car came with. As @SonicDiarrhea@lemmy.world said the turbo provides more options for upgrades.

Hard to say without knowing your budget.

Off the top of my head, check the used market for things in the same new price points.

All these will be in the $30k-$45k new, but used examples should be less. I threw the cheapest autotempest price next to them which probably isn't real.

VW golf/Jetta GTI/gli $14,900 golf R $15,396 Honda Civic SI $14,900 Toyota GR Corolla no used examples I could find Hyundai Elantra N no used examples I could find Tesla model 3 $26,500

Mazda 3 hatchback is kind of similar.

I had a 10th gen civic and loved it. Had I had more money a handful of years ago, I would have done a few upgrades to it.

If you have the 1.5L turbo engine that came on everything but the base model, you could upgrade the turbo and get a tune. That should put a bit more zip into it.

If you have the base model 2.0L, installing a turbo and all of the supporting mods on an NA vehicle is more expensive, time consuming, and frustrating for a first-timer. However, you could install an E85 kit to squeeze a bit more power out of it. Pair it with a tune and I bet you could get a bit past the 200hp mark.

These could be cheaper options than getting a similar car in a sport trim. However, I understand that modifying your daily driver can seem risky as well. If you're mechanically inclined and feeling adventurous, I would encourage you to take a look at what upgrades can be done to your current car.