Races tend to be inclined toward stamina characters, magic characters or health (tank) characters. Take a look online at each race's racial passives...this is how you tell.

You can make any race either a stamina or magic character...it's just that if you go opposite a race's inclination they'll miss out on some powerful buffs. You could make a stam wood elf and get the racial buffs, but a stamina character won't make a very good healer. But you can ignore the racial passives and pump magic into a wood elf if you like.

Now...can you play any race in any role and be good for 98% of the game's content? Sure. It's just that if you take the character to end game and want to play very hard content, they'll be at a 2-5% disadvantage. Which is somewhat significant.

My advice is to play what you like. If you're new to the game, there's tons to learn. If you take a character down the wrong path, respec later. If you created a magic wood elf, theres a very good chance you'd shift them to a stamina character eventually. But this isn't a horrible process...you don't lose skill points or anything significant, you'd just have to spend a little gold then put some work into leveling up alternative, stamina based skills.

As for bows...ignore the other poster...they have no idea what they're talking about. On a stam wood elf, dual wield and bow combos are very good. The bow is entirely powerful if you know how to use it...it is currently a favorite for back bar in end game pve, and either front or back in pvp.

EDITED NOTE: Ha, I forgot this, but my friend wanted a wood elf Templar healer previously, but passed on it because of the racial passives instead he made a Breton at the shortest setting, played with his ears to give them kind of tips, gave him a Mohawk, and designed him so he could pretend he's half wood elf. And the toon is always mistaken for a wood elf...he's freaking tiny. So there's an option for your healer.