How to install the latest version of Laravel 8.x
You can simply specify a desired version within the command.
composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app "8.5.*"
I noticed this happened to me. (It downloaded 7 when I wanted 8)
The cause was it was automatically downloading the latest that my system could support. As I had an older version of php (7.2) it was automatically downloading an old version of laravel. After updating it allowed me to download latest.
Check the other requirements of laravel too and check that there isn't also something else holding it back