Men filling in drive past a city (5)
I believe the answer is:
derby
'a city' is the definition.
(Derby is an English city)
'men filling in drive past' is the wordplay.
'filling' says to take the centre (the letters which fill the word).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'drive' becomes 'dr' (abbreviation used in road names).
'past' becomes 'by' (as in years gone by).
The middle letter of 'men' is 'e'.
'e' going inside 'dr' is 'der'.
'der'+'by'='DERBY'
(Other definitions for derby that I've seen before include "20 horse 12" , "American bowler" , "English city" , "Cathedral city on the River Derwent" , "close match?" .)