Most major manufactures have at least one drop-bar bikes that aren't just road racers (aka, have disc brakes and can accept bigger tires). Sometimes you need to look under the adventure, cyclocross, commuting, or touring/trekking sub-categories. What makes it confusing is that the sub-category might be under road bikes (most common), hybrids, or even off-road categories.

I have a Felt "Adventure" bike (under the road bike section) with drop-bars, hydraulic disk breaks (a must for the hills I commute on), rear rack mounts, and a can fit up to 40mm tires (although they came with 30's which I upgraded to 35's). Unfortunately, it seems that they only have the most expensive version still listed on their website...which is a little more than what you were originally looking at. Looks like they still have a good selection of cyclocross bikes tho (you would just want to switch their stock tires with slick tires).

My Felt is very similar to the Specialized Diverge which I also really liked. I didn't get the Diverge because I was able to get much better components than I could on a similarly priced Specialized at that time.

You can also look at Trek, Giant, Salsa, Raleigh, Scott, etc...there is quite the selection and this segment is only growing since disc brakes are gaining in popularity.