Remember that Google Photos no longer directly syncs with Google Drive (even though it still draws from the same bucket of storage allowance). Google Photos is a much better way to view and organize your backed up photos anyway.
I already have Google photos app. But my question is when I go to Google drive and under that Google photos folder I can't see recent backed up photos.
As I mentioned just above, Google Photos no longer syncs directly with Google Drive. That Photos folder should have photos up to July, when the syncing officially stopped.
They back up to Google Photos, as they always have. Open your Google Photos app, or on the web, go to photos.google.com. You can easily download any of your photos that have been backed up to the cloud.