As others have already said, you’re not required to allow any race in your homebrew setting. Heck, half my settings only allow humans and that’s it (not DnD though).

That being said, if you go for high fantasy, I think elementals (aka genasi) always add quite a bit to the lore and I would add at least one scaly race. Be it Dragonborn, Lizardmen or Naga and maybe a beast race if it fits your world.

But it really depends on the kind of world you want.

Honestly I make all the tolkien races, them if players want other races I invent cultures as we go.

Nothing is required. It’s your world. I restrict mine to “no furry races” like Tabaxi or other anthropomorphic races. I do allow avian races because they’re harder to play, dragonborn, as well as Firbolg.

In my home setting, I’m very particular about what races players can pick. None of the furry races, and generally just a handful of the fantasy races.

However, I told them up front that the mechanics of every WOTC-made race were on the table. So if a player wanted the mechanics of a Tabaxi, that’s fine. You’re just a really fast human/elf. We would reflavour the race to for in my setting. Because flavour is free and players like to have options. If the player and I can’t think of a reflavour, they can’t play the race.

I only build what is currently necessary. It is not necessary to know the origin of the race I am playing to have fun with it. A lot of the time, less is more.

Basically all the races in lord of the rings would be ideal. Don’t forget about the giant spiders and treeants.

Personally, I’m rather fond of fairies and drow too.

Would love to see Inklings in d&d as well.

None, that said my opinion doesn’t matter.

Talk to your players. Explain your thought process. Ask them what they would miss. Come to a compromise.

Not what you’re asking, but relevant: I’ve mostly played in homebrew worlds and exclusively DMd homebrew, and what ive found is actually having the different races have some representation means more than their historical heritage in the world. If it comes up, maybe in prep detail it out a little. If there’s only one Tabaxi in the world, it’s origin is more suspicious (needs explanation) than if players encounter them occasionally.

Wanting my players to be open to trying less common races I recently made a d100 including every race I could find so that the NPCs can be anything instead of whatever pops in my head in a rush to describe the shopkeep.

I would suggest getting rid of either Dragonborn or Tabaxi, since they are just there to give furries something to play as