I have the same issues it seems most of the lobbies in this game are dead and only a few are enjoyable. the issue is sport mode people just do theses races then hosting their own lobbies. Even Free Mode lobbies are bad, 49.4% are drift lobbies and 49.5% are Lets pretend to be police officers in a racing game, and the final 1% are usually track days full of tomahawks.
I have even noticed that there are less people running leagues on GT planet in the racing section.