Humans — the most popular race by far — get an extra point in all of their ability scores, which makes them a balanced pick for any class.
Funny. The default human (rather than the variant that gets the bonus feat) is actually one of the worst picks* for every class.
Other races get a huge pile of special abilities and, with +2 to 1 stat and +1 to another (or half elves/mountain dwarves, which are even better), are much better at building for a specific class.
The wood elf5 gets a bonus to dexterity as well as proficiency in longbows, perfect for the ranger class
Rangers get proficiency in longbows anyway, so wood elves are actually losing out by picking ranger.* They're better as clerics (the get a bonus to wisdom), standing back with a bunch of support spells and using the longbow which is now an actual bonus (with the right domain pick).
*it's also one of the worst 5e classes, the only one that's been unofficially revised by the developers, and still has problems.
At first blush it looks like characters are drawn from literature and everyday life, which seems surprisingly unimaginative considering that “Dungeons & Dragons” is the quintessential fantasy game.
It shouldn't be surprising. That people want to play a version of their heroes rather than bird boy or lizard girl should come as a shock to no one with even a vague awareness of human psychology. Which goes to explain the wood elf ranger- it's the association people make, regardless of character power or logic, wood elves run around with bows in the forests, so are more often rangers.
The writer for this should get get a rap on the knuckles, for not understand tropes or psychology and how they motivate people.