I reported this a few weeks ago, the entries close too soon for Short races.
If entries closed 1 minute before race start (or races were 20 minutes apart), that would go a long way towards resolving this as it gives players an extra 2 (5) minutes to join a lobby.
Doesn’t solve the issue that you won’t get 3 laps in, but it does make the flow between races a bit better.
It’s a little annoying for me personally as I host a weekly race night, and due to disconnects and crashes we sometimes miss the window for the next race after completing the current one. This results in along wait to the next race.
We could host private lobbies but they lack the features that draw us to Featured Multiplayer (namely schedules, Qualifying, spec builds, skill/safety ratings and the opportunity to race against “randoms” in bigger lobbies).