According to dictionaries, "race" ≃ "subspecies"; for example, "A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics". "Species" has a biological/taxonomical definition (
here), and while it is often defined via having fertile offspring, it is not the only accepted one.
While humans are currently the only species we categorise as sentient beings, that may change in the future, as our understanding grows. In mythology and fiction, we have always had many. "Race" is one of the terms used to indicate groupings and associations within one, just like "kin", "clan", "family", et cetera.
Essentially, "race" is an almost arbitrarily defined fraction of some sentient species.