Can I play the original World of Warcraft without any expansions?

You cannot play the original World of Warcraft as Cataclysm changed the map, starting areas, and other things significantly.

To clarify, this does not require you to buy any of the expansions, but it does require you to patch your game so that you're on the current version of the game. Even without buying the expansions there are many changes that will effect how you experience the game.

Of course you need to have the patches to play the game.

You only need to purchase the $5.00 box and pay a subscription to play the original races (no blood elves, space goats, worgen or goblins) and be level capped at 60, never see outlands, northrend, etc.

But yes, the many years old dvd is out of date. Cata or not, it needs updates to play.