When you're looking to create a race that people aren't already familiar with (such as Tolkien-esque elves or dwarves), one way to go about it is to take inspiration from our world. Before I wrote The Legend of Draconite, I found inspiration for the Molouk race from a book I had about dinosaurs. I tweaked the Molouks a bit (they're more humanoid and have smooth skin, have hair as well as feathers, etc.) and made them my own race. If you're going with a more familiar race like humans, there's still elements you can add to make it your own.
Another way is to look up legends from our world and base a race off of that. You will want to add unique elements to that race to make it your own, unless you want to stay true to traditional legends and write something based in our world.