Elves are superficially based on Tolkien elves and old folklore, but as the games went by their culture and backstory became more bizaare and surreal. There's no real singular inspiration for them. Michael Kirkbride and the other writers made sure to make their culture seem as alien as possible by combining dozens of exotic cultures until the result was unrecognizable. The only relatively recognizable one is daro elf culture, which has a lot of mesopotamian references, particularly the ashlander names. Ayleids are very Aztec in terms of their beautiful yet convoluted names and their infamous gods. The other ones are too heavily steeped in fiction to pinpoint where they really came from.

Imperials are Greco-Roman / italian with hints of spanish and meso american, particularly in their early culture.

Bretons / reachmen are heavily inspired by the warring states and early tribes of western europe.

Redguards are African / Moor / Arab with subtle hints of Feudal Japan and Australian culture.

Nords were originally norse / viking / generic barbarians who lived in tribes and scattered fortress cities. They also had slightly pronounced native american influences as well. I guess in 200 years they became more "civilized" as they're now less barbarian, but the other aspects still exist. Unfortunetly the native american part of their culture was ignored in this game....

Let's see who else......the khajiit are very Moroccan. They also seemed to peg the beast races with all the negative stereotypes of other cultures. Someone needs to fill that role I guess, and they didn't want to offend any real life peoples.

The Argonians are.....odd. Not nearly enough is known about them to know what they're based from. Aside from the fiction TES made from them, they don't seem to be based off anything but general tribal cultures.

Did we forget any other Tamrielic races? I guess Imga, but they're basically just ape-people and we dont know more than that. Sload are off the cost of Tamriel but they're more based off of the magical monsters of ancient eastern folklores, and obviously they're physically a slug mixed with a toad.

What else do we have? Well the only other races we know of are those in Akavir. The Tsaesci are the only ones we know a lot about. They're heavily based off of a fantasized version of Imperial China, as they both controlled the majority of the continent and assimilated ("eating" as the tsaesci call it) the surrounding peoples into their own culture. They're also meant to be that distant, mysterious, alien-like race whose motives, behavior and even physical form are largely unknown. Is that all? Tell me if I've forgotten anyone.

It is no doubt misleading. On the other hand, since almost no movies or games is set in Scandinavia or has a Scandinavian main character, I'm just glad that Skyrim and the Nord culture is pretty similar to the Norse. I mean, if you live in America, seeing an American character is just standard. Living in Sweden however, I was about to crap my pants when the bad guy in the new Mission Impossible was Swedish. It's just nice to get some recognition, even though it's very indirect in this case, lol.