I tried raco setup first, clearing Safari history and data, toggling javascript, restarting the computer, switching default browser, fresh installs including downloading from a different site to trigger the os asking for permission again. Those all result in the following (which is why I tried some of those things).
The doc search within DrRacket goes to "file://private/var/folders/.../plt-sendurl-contents-file-<a-long-number>.html", and that page simply says "Please go here" where "here" is a link to "file:///Users/gfb/Library/Racket/7.8/doc/search/index.html" which doesn't work from that link. But copy-pasting the link goes to the search page but without the style sheet applied. The general "Help Desk" documentation is fine, but then clicking on "Search Manuals" goes to a non-functional version of the search page.
Everything works in Firefox though, which is why I was thinking some Safari caching or being picky about running some of the javascript for security reasons.