The race choice is an easy one since you have only two options: a Tauren fighting with the Horde, or a Night Elf as a member of the Alliance. The choice is mostly aesthetic, but the racial abilities do make a little bit of difference in the way you will play your druid. The character stat differences are negligible and they shouldn't affect your decision. If you have friends already playing the game, simply choose based on their faction.
Night Elf racial abilities:
Shadowmeld - Activate while immobile and out of combat to enter stealth mode - lasts until canceled - 10 sec cooldown
Quickness - Dodge chance increased by 1%
Wisp Spirit - Become a wisp when dead with movement speed increase of 50% (25% faster than normal ghost)
Nature Resistance - All Night Elves get +10 Nature Resistance
Tauren racial abilities:
War Stomp - Activate to stun up to 5 opponents within 8 yards - lasts 2 sec - 2 min cooldown
Endurance - Max Health increased by 5%
Cultivation - 15 skill bonus to Herbalism
Nature Resistance - All Tauren get +10 Nature Resistance
Which class has better racial abilities usually boils down to an argument of Warstomp vs. Shadowmeld and Wisp Spirit. Warstomp is powerful in any situation, saving us from death in PvE content and annoying gnomes to no end in PvP. Shadowmeld can be handy since you don't have to shapeshift to enter stealth and is believed to increase the players level of stealth and Wisp Form makes dying a little more bearable.
Once you create your new Druid, simply look for characters with yellow exclamation points above them. These characters will offer you quest opportunities and direct you to new areas as your levels increase. As you complete quests you will collect rewards (don't forget to equip them to your character) and new quests will become available.
If you would like a detailed leveling guide look to Jame's Leveling Guide for Horde or for Alliance. Once you get to the Outlands, do every quest you can find. When you get to level 70 you should still have plenty of quests available to do for extra money towards your epic flying mount.
