I'm going to talk about stereotypes and their use in fiction because I feel that this is what this question is about.

Writers use stereotypes to convey lots of meaning in very little words. Let's say you introduce a new character in your book and you describe her as a cheerleader with long, blond hair. Most readers are already going to have tons of ideas about what kind of person she might be: Maybe she's superficial and popular. She always has a boyfriend. She's more into fashion and beauty than into science. And so on.

Reasons for using stereotypes in your story

Maybe you don't have the time or energy to describe your character (or race, in your case) with all the traits that are important for the story. Maybe it would take up too much space in your book. Doing this with major characters is usually considered lazy and bad writing, but it's a great way to introduce unimportant characters (like the flower lady that has exactly one line) and have them have a personality without having to describe it. You can mention two or three things about them and already have them be a real person without having to spend much time on explaining who they are.
Maybe you want to introduce a stereotype and then make the story interesting by breaking it. This is often done with more important characters. First you show the cynical, hardboiled detective, but then he comes home to his wife, reads funny stories to his two daughters and feeds the newly adopted stray kittens. This gives characters depth and makes them more real, more true-to-life.
Stereotypes are unavoidable. People are always going to think of things whatever you say about a person. Mentioning something as mundane as their hair color already can make us assume things about their character. This can be incredibly helpful, as mentioned above, because we can express lots of meaning in just very little words - by making use of all the things that one assumes about a given stereotype. Use this to your advantage.

All of these things apply to other things than characters, of course.

How to decide which stereotypes to use

Back to your question. In your case, try to figure out what you are gaining from using stereotype races. Examples are, as you have pointed out, the reader already being familiar with them. You have to describe less about them. Whatever you describe about them that brakes the stereotype makes them interesting. You can set up reader's expectations.

Then figure out if what you are gaining is actually serving the story - or undermining it. Does it help that the reader has tons of expectations about what your elves are going to be like?

Do the same for the opposite scenario: What are you gaining from making your own races? Does this serve the story more or less? Does your story need these new races or could you just do a spin on existing one for the sake of simplicity?

My personal take on this is that it's always better to start with stereotypes and then break reader's expectation. The stereotypes can be very well hidden, almost invisble, but they make the reader feel safe and like they understand the story. If you decide to not base your races on the ones that have been overused for centuries, look for other clichés to build upon.

Also, I'd go with the distinction of minor/major character, in this case with races: Make minor/less important races mostly follow a stereotype to make them easy to describe, but really flesh out the ones that you're going to be using a lot. Delve deep into their society, history etc. and make them a very distinct species.

Further reading

Here's a nice read on how to successfully use stereotype characters in your story.

This is an article on how to mix up the stereotype races and make them your own. It also tells you a bit about why you might want that.

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