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That's a common portrayal, but there are many exceptions - even in the original D&D, "elf" and "dwarf" were listed as classes.
Imagine you were to take a copy of Merc, which has the four standard Diku classes and no races, and then do some quick renaming - "warrior" becomes "dwarf", "mage" becomes "elf", "thief" becomes "halfling" and "cleric" becomes "human". While it's true that you'd no longer have professions, IMO it would be highly misleading to advertise such as mud as "classless".
In some thematic settings, spellcasting is a natural ability, and not something that can be trained. In other cases, even the so-called "racial abilities" need to be consciously trained. Going back to the World of Darkness again, Vampires have to actively find a teacher in order to learn many of their supernatural disciplines.
Well "vampire" and "werewolf" aren't really races, at least not in most thematic settings - in most cases they're supernatural afflictions. A halfling doesn't grow to twice his normal height if bitten by a vampire, nor does an orc's skin turn pink if infected by lyanthropy.
You can certainly give them both full access to same range of skills that a normal human could learn, but as long as they're able to learn abilities that the other can't, I would consider that to be a class-based system.
Once again, imagine you take a copy of Merc, and replace "warrior" with "werewolf", "mage" with "vampire", "cleric" with "angel", etc. Then go through the skills and spells and do the same - so the "polymorph" spell becomes "batform", "charm person" becomes "dominate", "enhanced damage" becomes "lupine might", and so on. No functional changes, only cosmetic ones. I'd still consider that to be a class-based mud.
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