The thing is that for me the story, up to creation myth and legend is everything, because this influences the race's characteristics and in particular its magic, which in turn influences the cultures developed by the race during the history of the setting.
Unfortunately, I don't have any good one in D&D since most of the races are more or less humans in funny hats, and in any case the creation myths are setting dependent, but the drows were not too bad (including at start where Gygax did not create them as inherently evil, but where their only shown society can give that impression).
Best races for me are those from RQ, they have a strong creation myth, and therefore their powers and general outlooks comes from this (Uz/Trolls being created by/in Darkness for example), which in turn described the way the cultures developped and the history. And it does not prevent the history to influence it further, for example the Uz/Trolls where subjected to the Trollkin Curse, which has had a major influence on all their cultures since then.