This strange issue has happened to me 3 times on my Xbox One, the last occasion being today.
The MP lobby is at it should be, locked down and waiting for cars to load, but when I finally ‘break through’ the race has already started (so I’ve missed the 3 sec countdown) plus maybe 1 sec more as the cars around me on the grid are already moving.
Additionally, my camera view has now changed. I always run bumper cam however when this issue strikes the camera view changes to an outside the car view.
The lobbies/races beforehand and afterwards were fine and ran with no problems.
Not a regular occurrence by any means but annoying nonetheless.