I don't play the stock races.
I usually leave the Psilons in, so all the techs will be available in the game for stealing or trading.
Just like I leave the Sakkra, Sillicoid and Trillarian in, so I can capture higher pop planets for transporting over to my planets and increasing their max pop and for score.
Any race that has a better home world, like Mrrshan (Rich) or Alkari (Artifacts), stays in too.
I usually choose the Darlok face, because I don't like having techs stolen.
I rarely choose Cre. I favor higher prod races and Cre can slow down growth trying to build all those buildings with less production.
Race Picks for Solo games:
Uni, Aqua, Prod+2, Lg Rich HW. <-- Well rounded.
Uni, Tol, Prod+1, Lg HW. <-- Also, well rounded.
Uni, Aqua, Subt, Lg RHW. <--Very High pop.
Uni, Sub, Prod+2, RHW. <- Insane Production.
Uni, Tele, Spy+20, RHW. <--Best starting Spy Offense and Defense.
Tol, Prod+2, War.
Tol, Tele, Prod+1, LgHW.
Race Picks for friendly Multiplayer vs AIs only:
We usually set some guideline to make it tougher on us, like no Uni, or must take Uncreative and Feudal. That makes it fun. 
In my resent one, I chose:
Tol, Sub, War. <-- very high pop, no pollution or their techs to worry about and lots of command points for ships.
Sometimes I go for something completely different.
Over a decade ago, I built the Vaadwaur from ST VGR Dragon's Teeth episode.
Subt, Stealthy, TransD, Feudal, Pop-50 and I forget what else.
The point was they were a race that was left in hibernation inside a planet for 900 years with some old small ships. So everyone else has better tech than them and there is only a few left. They used sub-space corridors to get around, hence the Stealthy TransD.
Was a fun, backward race to play.
I like the race picks in the ICE mod. It limits many of my main race choices. Uni is so expensive and Feudal is changed to make it worth choosing sometimes.
MOO1 Fan, MOO2 Fan, MOO3 needed too many changes = hopeless, MOO4 trending downward, getting older waiting for a MOO5 (a modern version of mostly MOO2).