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Most gamers will want to jump right into the new areas with their tried and true characters, but checking out the new races is definitely worth the effort as well.  The Alliance's Draenei and the Horde's Blood Elves each boast beautiful starting areas and the ability to play as classes previously only available to one group or the other.  Blood Elves can be Paladins and Draenei can make Shamans.  The ability for Horde players to embrace a profession previously only available to the Alliance and vice versa had more than a few gamers up in arms a few months back when the news broke, but I think this will add some interesting twists to the overall experience.

Minor controversy aside (and my isn't it easy to get gamers' panties all knotted up over something like this), playing the new races also opens up a multitude of new quests, many of which are far more interesting than anything the original game had to offer.

The new races aren't the only newish offerings in Burning Crusade, of course.  Blizzard clearly geared the majority of the expansion to higher level players as the Outland (get here from the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands) is brimming with quests engineered to help players level from 60 to the new cap of 70.  Getting your level 60 guy to that new 70 may not take as long as you'd think, but getting there is worth the effort as it opens up all sorts of new raid content and the ability to replay completed dungeons on a new "heroic" setting which will mean more difficult enemies and better loot.

Outland also offers a great amount of Player vs. Player quests and content; enough to keep gamers busy for quite some time.  Add new factions and new rewards into the mix and it's easy to see that Burning Crusade does indeed offer something for just about anyone who's had an interest in WoW.

If there's a negative side to the expansion at all it's that it is sure to create a lull in most of the "old" areas.  This means that those who don't pick this puppy up will soon find themselves wandering around by their lonesome while everyone else is happily questing Outland.