As we've seen in most of the TES games, no province (except maybe Summerset?) is wholly populated by a single race. Even Morrowind, full of the racist Dunmer, was home to free Argonians, Bretons, Bosmer, etc.
So why shouldn't a Breton be able to walk freely among the Nords or Argonian homelands? Shouldn't there be a mix of each race in every province? It is far too unrealistic to assume "1 province = 1 race".
As long as a character doesn't actively advance the cause of his/her faction in the 3-way war, how could the indigenous population be aware that the character is a member of an opposing faction?
This. I mean depending on how they do the game, this could be played out easily. If they have the disposition system like in Morrowind, you could travel to another faction's province, but the people there would have a fair degree of hatred towards you. So it would be harder for a player from the Ebonheart Pact to do a mission in the Aldmeri Dominion just because the quest givers don't like your race. So basically....
I personally don't mind being limited to the regions of whatever faction I choose. It helps create a sense of faction or realm pride in the game, and makes the PvP even better. Now I am not sure if it will be exactly like DAoC, as in, the whole region of the other faction is out of bounds to you, but who knows. I think it made more sense in DAoC because you had greater distances between realms. You had Albion (England/Wales/Scottland), Hibernia (Ireland), and Midgard (Norway, Sweden, Finland). Those were three very distinct regions, and helped create the "feel" of each realm. Albion was very anglo-saxon, Hibernia was very celtic and magical, and Midgard was all viking-esque. I suppose the different regions in Tamriel are pretty distinct too so they could go this route. I just see them doing something more along the lines of some parts of the different factions will be accessible to everyone, for quests and what not.
This as well. Even within factions, an Argonian walking into Morrowind would have a harder time with the locals than another Dunmer or even a Nord would.