rat race

oravanpyörä puhekieltä An activity or situation which is congested with participants and which is hectic or tedious, especially in the context of a busy, modern urban lifestyle.
2006, w:Richard Corliss|Richard Corliss, "http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1194022,00.html Get Your Motor Running," Time, 14 May:

. . . a 1950s-ish town, keeping a sense of community far from the superhighway rat race.