ESXi is not the same as Workstation (where you get options such as NAT or Bridged)
ESXi uses virtual switches, the physical NIC functions as an uplink port to connect a virtual switch to a physical one, there are port groups within the virtual switch to give connectivity to VMs and to the ESXi VMkernel too.
It’s up to you to provide all network functions such as DHCP for providing IP addresses, and DNS for name resolution.
This should help: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc/GUID-35B40B0B-0C13-4...