Welcome to the list Allan,
You will most likely find a like minded set of people here, although I am not personally aware of any other slack users (feel free to try and convert us)
Aren't there Linux builds of some of the Corel draw versions ? I am sure I have read about it somewhere. If not I am sure I have seen it running under wine before, that could be a whole lot easier that having to maintain a whole VM just for one application.
That said I have in the past had a hard enough job getting Corel to run properly on Windows let alone using wine :-)
I use VMware too, my study and office would be full of boxes without it (looks around to see a study full of boxes......ok my study and office would be MORE full without it)