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When I ran a local gaming store there were a couple of us who would throw together a basic codebase and have LAN gaming session with each base until people grew tired of it. The first one I put together was an expansion of Gladiator Pits that featured a "create-your-own-race" customization. Each player could choose from several dozen perks and flaws (with a simple point system to attempt balance) and a name generator for the race. One of the traits people had the most fun/debate about deciding on was the homeworld enviornment (extremely hot planet, high gravity planet, acidic atmosphere, etc) which altered stats, resists and vulns.
I think towards the end someone said there was upwards of 50K available races, many extremely similar and some vastly different. While of course this is no attempt to prove you should throw as many races as you can think of into a game, under some settings (an intergalatic Street Fighter clone or many other basic pk games I've played) the background of the races don't really mean much. What most players care about is what the race allows you to do and that the races are balanced.
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