I kind of get where the original poster is coming from, even though I'm a big fan of 4e and its cosmology. The ones I have a big problem with are dragonborn and tieflings for two different reasons.
I just can't get over the whole "sure you're descended from ultimate evil who betrayed the gods who provide us succor and seek to enslave us and suck out all of our souls to fuel their war against goodness itself, but you've been our neighbours for awhile now so we know you're good people" backstory for tieflings. They just shouldn't be common inhabitants of most small towns, with one operating your local general store in Winterhaven. It really takes the vinegar out of what made tieflings cool in the first place, namely that they're a bad seed. Seeing tieflings like this reminds me of a death metal fan who has become an accountant. Sure they might still have the long hair and have blasphemous tattoos under his pressed white shirt, but he's still an accountant.
The dragonborn work just fine in the dungeon, but they are hard to integrate in the social side of the rpg play. I was rather surprised to find this out, because I had been planning on using lizardmen as a core race in my campaign setting. The dragonborn is just too monstrous to really "fit in" a casual social gathering at a pub or a fancy dress party. This is especially problematic for romance subplots. While all the other PC races are near-human enough to be able to kiss and be relatively assured that they have the proper parts, dragonborn can only really have romance subplots with other dragonborn.
I have less problems with the new races in the PHB2.
Goliaths - As Wolfgang says, they are a race without deep roots in traditional fantasy. However, I think they fill the role of "strong and noble savage" admired by 19th century victorian romantics fairly well. Their warpaint and highland territory makes them fairly easy to imagine as a semi-barbaric people on the fringes of a fantasy kingdom.
Shifters - I think these should have been the replacement for the half-orcs in the PHB1 instead of the dragonborn. They match the half-orc's savage temper and hint of being monstrous without the need for mass rape in the backstory. You can easily imagine a people who went into the wilds and became bestial and savage. Lyncanthropes are also not quite as evil as literal devils, so it is more plausible that you get used to shifters while still not quite trusting them to always control their rage. After all people were able to live with Egil Skallagrimsson, and he was the grandson of a werewolf.
Devas - I think everyone thinks the new emphasis on Devas being reincarnated blessed souls with the capability of becoming Rakshasas makes these the most interesting new race to come out of WotC since 1e. I think a different visual look helps cement the fact that they are something special rather than just a variant human. The illumians for example, always seemed like they should be a variant of the wizard class rather than a race in and of themselves.
Gnomes - The gnomes have had a massive reboot, so I guess you can consider them a new race. I really like the ditching of the tinker baggage and focusing on the trickster aspect with aspect of the 2e forest gnomes, keeping their secrets with illusions. I'm one of the people who doesn't like the art direction the gnome has taken, but I do like the black eyes and harsh angular features, so I hope some traditional gnomish features (such as beards and large noses) find themselves mixed back in with the current art design in the future.
Half-orcs - Half-orcs have had a minor reboot, but the fact that it makes them good brutal rogues is awesome.
So in short, I find the Dragonborn and Tieflings to be more of "Mos Eisley problem" than the PHB2 races are.