"..why didn't Rambo just wait until Teasle was out of sight, then head back into town?"
In the novel, he does exactly that - waits for the car to disappear into the distance, and then walks back to town. He does this numerous times, before the confrontation finally escalates into him being arrested.
Another point about this is that Rambo is facing the choice between walking an enormous distance just to get something to eat, and returning to town. The latter choice is obviously more appealing, especially since he has already been walking a lot.
Third point I wanted to make was that although Rambo can't know it for sure, it's VERY likely that if he chooses to walk that long distance to the next town, he'll be hassled by the police again, and driven out of that town as well. It wouldn't change anything to just walk to the next town, in his opinion, probably. It would be just the same thing all over again.
Then the next town? And the next?
He wanted to draw the line somewhere, and didn't want to work so hard just to return to square one again - i.e. walk an exhausting distance just to be hassled by another Teasle again.
So, the only rational, logical, pragmatic, and sensible solution is to see the thing through instead of trying to avoid the inevitable and repetitive confrontation.
The novel goes a bit deeper into Rambo's inner dialogue, as to why he chooses not to shave, not to cut his hair, not to dress better, just to be left alone and not be hassled so much. Rambo does consider all those things in the novel. It's not shown as well in the movie, where he might have different motivations altogether.
The end result is the same, though - Rambo being eventually arrested.
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