The 56-year-old is best known for presenting Top Gear alongside Oxfordshire farmer Mr Clarkson as well as Mr May.
The trio with the trio later reuniting for Prime Video series The Grand Tour, and the motoring presenter was in Oxfordshire last month at Blenheim Palace.
The former Top Gear presenter has now appeared on Jake Humphrey’s High Performance podcast.
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On the episode released on Thursday (October 22), he said: “I made a joke that was kind of the joke I’d make amongst my friends.
“We got a bit of a backlash about it being homophobic. No, I’m not. I’m genuinely not, but then I looked at the joke and realised, oh s**t, actually.
“It’s fine if you’re in my lovely bubble where there are no isms or ists, but if you’re a 15-year-old Scottish lad, living in a tenement somewhere, who needs to tell his father he’s gay and he’s going to get the c**p kicked out of him, it ain’t funny.
“So context is really important. The thing I regret about the BBC, and this is before podcasts and things were more prolific, is that I should have opened a conversation.
“And I would happily have stepped into it. I’d happily have gone, let people beat the crap out of me, and said, you know what, you’re right, and I’m really sorry.
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“I’d said that in the context of where I live. But where you live, it ain’t funny. It wasn’t. So let’s all of us correct that and share it.
“Nobody on top of you ever was, actually, racist, homophobic, or sexist.
“People who attributed us to all those lads [attitude], ‘Oh, you know what you guys are like, women and cars’. What? Find us anything that backs that up.”
The admission saw a strong reaction from fans who rushed to the comments online to plead with Mr Hammond.
“Don’t go woke, Richard,” said one viewer, while another added: “Who cares about the feelings of snowflakes.”
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Others lambasted this reaction by adding comments such as: “Well, this brought out the homophobes.”
Another then said: “This man got his actual cranium dragged across a mile of runway whilst being crushed by some experimental drag race kart and still manages to find empathy for those who are different than him, says a lot about the people on social media who can’t.”
Then some simply praised Mr Hammond as a commenter remarked: “Good on ya Richard for thinking about the little guy.
“It was obvious that the gay jokes on TG and TGT clearly didn’t come from a place of hatred or malice.
“I was a closeted teenager watching TG, and I never felt attacked by the show. But it’s good to reflect on these things; it shows what a good bloke you are.”