In my init.el file I had the line

(setq org-clock-in-switch-to-state "IN_PROGRESS")

Having an IN_PROGRESS keyword between TODO and DONE helps me keep track of the task I am currently working on. However I noticed that when I started defining capture templates with :clock-in t the task would be marked IN_PROGRESS right away (even in the case it had no TODO keyword associated). To guard against this I found out that you can pass a function to org-clock-in-switch-to-state. I now use the following function:

(defun samd/clock-in-switch-state (kw)
"Switch to IN_PROGRESS unless we are in capture mode or there is no TODO kw assigned"
       (when (and kw (not (and (boundp 'org-capture-mode) org-capture-mode))) "IN_PROGRESS"))

The function checks if we are in capture mode and if the current heading has a TODO keyword. It will only switch the state to IN_PROGRESS on a heading with a TOD keyword when clocking outside of capture mode.