Is there an easy way to perform a program expansion without the use of DrRacket?
There is expand/expand-once...
https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/Expanding_Top-Level_Forms.html
raco expand will do it at the command line. Also see the recent
compiler explorer work.
The command-line raco macro-stepper is the same thing as clicking on the macro stepper button, but you don't have to have started DrRacket first.